Belgian GP: Sauber Saturday qualifying notes

Team Sauber Petronas drivers Felipe Massa and Jacques Villeneuve will start tomorrow's Belgian Grand Prix from seventh and 14th positions respectively after this afternoon's qualifying session.

Jacques Villeneuve:

"All round the lap my rear brakes were locking and I had no rear-end grip, so I was fighting the car the whole way. It's disappointing because I've been quicker than Felipe so far this weekend and even though we didn't change a thing on the car after practice this morning the balance had gone away by the time I did my qualifying lap. I have no idea why."

Felipe Massa:

"That was a really good lap! The balance was good and I didn't make any mistakes. This morning the car was oversteering a bit, especially on old tyres, so we gambled a little and made some changes to the set-up which worked really well for qualifying. It was definitely a step forward. Now I'm looking forward to the race. There's a high chance of rain tomorrow, but we are in good shape whatever happens."

Willy Rampf (Technical Director):

"Due to the uncertainty over the weather tomorrow we hedged our bets and went for different strategies for each driver. We had to compromise between getting a perfect set-up for qualifying and trying to second guess what the weather might do, but Felipe and Jacques both did very good jobs and I think we are in reasonable shape now whatever conditions we have for the race. We can approach it with confidence."

Felipe Massa
Chassis: C24-06
1:47.867, 7th

Jacques Villeneuve
Chassis: C24-04
1:48.889, 14th

-sauber-