22/05/2004

Grand Prix of Monaco - Qualifying Round-Up

Olivier Panis (Car 17 Chassis TF104/07 T-car TF104/03)
Pre-Qualifying: 10th Lap Time: 1m15.125s (+0.642s)
Qualifying: 13th Lap Time: 1m15.859s (+1.874s)
Grid Position: 13th
"Through this morning's sessions I had some problems and did not feel too confident in the car but this afternoon was much better. All the engineers and mechanics reacted very well after the practice to prepare a good car for me in qualifying. We did not expect to be fantastic at this circuit but we did the job we needed to do and I am quite happy with my qualifying lap."

Cristiano da Matta (Car 16 Chassis TF104/04 T-car TF104/06)
Pre-Qualifying: 13th Lap Time: 1m15.738s (+1.255s)
Qualifying: 15th Lap Time: 1m16.169s (+2.184s)
Grid Position: 15th
"I felt that my lap was actually quite good considering our general lack of grip and I think we extracted all we could from the car today. Of course there is always a little bit to gain here or there but I don't believe we would have been able to achieve much more. In terms of performance I hope that we can be a little bit better in the race we just have to see what tomorrow brings."

Mike Gascoyne - Technical Director Chassis
"Coming here we knew that we would struggle for pace in qualifying so we have aimed for a more conservative race strategy. With the way the tyres are behaving I am sure that this is the right decision. The team did a reasonable job today and the cars are quite well balanced just lacking in grip as we knew they would be. Now we have to see how the race pans out tomorrow and ensure that we get both cars to the finish."