Austrian GP: BAR Friday qualifying notes

After a positive start to the Austrian Grand Prix weekend in free practice this morning, Lucky Strike B*A*R Honda carried the momentum through to first qualifying with Jacques Villeneuve and Jenson Button ending the session in 4th and 5th places respectively.

Jacques Villeneuve:

"It was a good lap and I'm happy that the car is working well. I knew we'd be competitive here but that's a little faster than I expected. We had a few problems this morning in free practice but we changed certain things with our set-up for qualifying and that did the trick. The car has been quick all season and we're making small improvements all the time, but it's quite cool here at the moment and the car seems to work better when it's not too hot.

"I feel good. I like this track and I have great memories of racing here. There are some good overtaking opportunities so there is always a lot of action. Our strategy will determine how well we do through the rest of the weekend but we're looking better than we have in other races this season."

Jenson Button:

"We expected to be quite high up in first qualifying here. So far so good. From the off though the car had far too much oversteer. We thought we had made a set-up improvement after free practice but I think we over-compensated and the car was too nervous at the rear. It's not a big problem, we just need to do some more work on the set- up. Over one lap the car is good but we'll have to work on the longer runs now. I'm reasonably confident at this stage and looking forward to a good weekend."

David Richards, Team Principal

"Both drivers can be very satisfied with an excellent start to the weekend. There is obviously a lot of further work to be done to put us in the best position for Sunday, but nonetheless it's always good for team morale when Friday goes this well."

Geoffrey Willis, Technical Director:

"We had a trouble-free session this morning and were able to keep to our programme. The car wasn't very well balanced to start with but we were able to make good progress through the session. Clearly it's good to start the weekend in this position but Friday qualifying times are not always a good indication of relative performance. I think both cars will continue to go well here this weekend and we will now focus on getting the right set-up and strategy for the race."

Shuhei Nakamoto, Engineering Director, Honda Racing Development:

"Fourth and fifth is encouraging and overall we've had a strong day. However, we've got to make sure we get the best out of the package tomorrow and convert our speed into points on Sunday."

Jacques Villeneuve
Chassis: BAR Honda 005-3
Position: 4th
Lap time: 1:08.680

Jenson Button
Chassis: BAR Honda 005-4
Position: 5th
Lap time: 1:08.831

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