25/09/2004

Grand Prix of China - Qualifying Round-Up

Olivier Panis (Car 17 Chassis TF104/09B)
Pre-Qualifying: 9th
Lap Time: 1m34.153s (+0.968s)
Qualifying: 8th
Lap Time: 1m34.975s (+0.963s)
Grid Position: 8th
"I am quite happy to be eighth on the grid for tomorrow's race. With all three cars around the top ten in yesterday's free practice we started the race weekend in a competitive way. The car has been looking consistent although I had some trouble this morning with corner entry oversteer. We were unable to fix the problem immediately but after the session I sat down with my engineers and checked the data. The changes we made to the car worked well for qualifying and I would like to say well done to everyone. Considering where we were this morning and where we are now we have improved a lot. I am confident we can push hard in the race tomorrow."

Ricardo Zonta (Car 16 Chassis TF104/10B)
Pre-Qualifying: 16th
Lap Time: 1m34.958s (+1.773s)
Qualifying: 14th
Lap Time: 1m35.410s (+1.398s)
Grid Position: 13th
"I do not think that final result does justice to our performance so far this weekend. The grip level was much lower in qualifying compared to this morning's practice sessions. I made a small mistake at the hairpin when I locked the front wheels but I lost a lot of time in the final sector. I am not starting as high up the grid as I expected but we have been quite competitive in the practice sessions running regularly inside of the top ten so I hope our race preparations will pay off. I have some work to do in the early stages of the race to make my way up through the field."

Mike Gascoyne - Technical Director Chassis
"Overall a very tight qualifying session. Having struggled this morning with grip levels and with the balance of his car Olivier did a great job. I think he can be satisfied with his qualifying performance. He equals his best result of the season which incidentally was in Bahrain the other new circuit on this season's calendar and also Indianapolis. Ricardo was happier in the free practice sessions this morning but a mistake under braking into turn ten on his qualifying lap cost him several tenths-of-a-second. The car has been strong over the long runs and we are confident of our race pace. However it would have been nice to have both cars starting from the top ten which should have been possible today."