Australian GP BAR qualifying quotes

2001 Qantas AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX
Weather - Hot and Sunny MELBOURNE, Saturday 3rd March 2001 - The Lucky Strike Reynard British American Racing Honda team took to the Albert Park circuit for the first official qualifying session of the year. After a slow start by all of the teams on to the track, and a red flag 50 minutes into the session, the BAR Honda drivers of Jacques Villeneuve and Olivier Panis finished eighth and ninth respectively. Both drivers feel that there is more to come from the cars and are optimistic going into the race.

Jacques Villeneuve Position : 8th Best time : 1:28:435
"I am happy with the end result as we have had a tough weekend. I lost time yesterday so I have not had much running time and we only got the set up right for the last two runs of the qualifying session. But it turned out okay in the end and I am looking forward to Sunday".

Olivier Panis Position : 9th Best time : 1:28:518
"It was not too bad although we expected to be a little better than we were. We have the potential to go quicker but during my last lap I was blocked by Nick Heidfeld in the Sauber. We have a good car, the balance is good and so is the reliability. It is great to be back and it was a good first qualifying and I am now looking forward to the race."

Malcolm Oastler, Technical Director, BAR Honda
"Overall it was a disappointing qualifying session for us although it could have been worse. We had a little bit of trouble with traffic but we still have some work to do. However it's the first race and if we are reliable then we could be in a position to score points."

Craig Pollock, Team Principal and Managing Director, BAR Honda
"I am very pleased to have the two cars in the top ten but it does show us that we still have quite a lot of work to do. We could have done better but we have two good cars and drivers so we are in a good position to race tomorrow".

-ericas@motorsport.com