British GP: Ferrari Saturday notes

Jean Todt:

"After this morning's free practice, we felt we would able to take pole position, but it was not to be. It was a great fight for first place and a shame we could not make it; all the more so as we lost out by just 34 thousandths of a second. It shows that the competition is of a very high level. Every result is very hard to achieve and one can never take anything for granted. The cars went well, as did the Bridgestone tyres. We have everything in place to have a good race tomorrow."

Rubens Barrichello:

"Of course I would like to have been on pole. But I have no complaints and it's good to be on the front row. I aborted my first run, because I saw a lot of smoke at Becketts and then I hit traffic. It was a busy session after that, because on my second run, part of my seatbelt came undone and I was moving around a lot in the cockpit, but I still pushed for a time. Then, I had a fantastic third run to post my best time. On my final run, I had cars in front of me as I left the pits and when I came to start the flying lap, I think my tyres were a bit cooler than I would have liked. As for the car, we made changes throughout the session and it was quite good by the end."

Michael Schumacher:

"I chose to go out earlier than usual for my first run, so that we would have time to make changes to the car. The car was very good in the first sector but I was losing time in the next two. At one point, we changed the nose of the car, but to be honest, we never really got the balance right this afternoon. I am reasonably confident for the race, but it is hard to say what everyone's race pace will be as we have not done that much running in dry conditions. Starting on the second row, we will need a good strategy and we must wait and see if we can be quicker than the others."

Ross Brawn:

"You never think you have it in the bag until the last lap. Montoya's time was surprising, although we can take comfort from the fact we were doing similar times throughout the session, while he really had to put in an incredible lap. We hope to continue the trend seen in the last few races, where qualifying doesn't count for a lot in the race. The cars went well and we are happy with our tyre choice for the race, which will be very close. You can overtake here but it is a bit more difficult than at the Nurburgring and therefore, race strategy will play a vital part in deciding the final result."

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