Australian GP Saturday Stewart notes

Melbourne, Saturday 6th March, 1999 Australian Grand Prix: Qualifying

Stewart-Ford driver Rubens Barrichello qualified fourth for tomorrow's Australian Grand Prix behind the two McLaren-Mercedes and Michael Schumacher's Ferrari. Johnny Herbert was 13th fastest in his debut qualifying session for the Stewart-Ford team. In this morning's practice session he was third fastest.

Today's qualifying confirmed the pace shown during practice.

RUBENS BARRICHELLO Car No.16 (SF3-04) Time: 1:32.148 Position: 4th

'This is a fantastic start to the season. It goes some way towards proving that our times over the winter were legitimately quick. Fourth is a good position to start this race from. We have a very good chance of finishing in the points if we run reliably tomorrow.'

JOHNNY HERBERT Car No.17 (SF3-03) Time: 1:32.991 Position: 13th

'It's a shame that we lost so much time after this morning's strong performance, particularly given that 90 percent of the field were quicker in qualifying. We'll have to study the data to find out where we could have gone quicker. It's good for the team that Rubens has qualified so well and it shows that we are in good shape.'

JACKIE STEWART, SGP Chairman

'I'm extremely pleased for Rubens and the whole team. Johnny dropped off from this morning's fine practice performance perhaps by attempting to trim the car a little too much. As a result, he lost the balance of the car. Overall we're delighted to have been consistently competitive over the past two days.'

GARY ANDERSON, SGP Technical Director

'It was bad luck for Johnny because he has been quick over the last two days. It appears we had a problem with the left front damper on his car. I'm delighted for Rubens but it would have been nice to have had both drivers up there in the top six. The early indications suggested that they would be. The car has been good on fuel and has looked after the tyres so if we stay out of trouble we should have a good race.'

NEIL RESSLER, Vice-President, Research & Vehicle Technology, Ford

''The brand new Ford Cosworth V10 CR-1 has so far performed faultlessly this weekend. Obviously the real test will be tomorrow's race but so far things are looking very promising. The team's performance at the Australian Grand Prix has been superb and it has validated the competitive times we achieved in pre-season testing.'