French GP: Renault Saturday notes

A pleasing qualifying session in Magny-Cours

The Mild Seven Renault F1 Team achieved a pleasing performance during the hour-long qualifying session for tomorrow's French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours. In sweltering conditions, Jenson Button and Jarno Trulli claimed the fourth row of the grid, with seventh and eighth positions respectively. Bolstered by the support of an enthusiastic home crowd tomorrow, the team is looking to add to their current score in the Constructors' Championship.

Jenson Button, 7th position

"It's fantastic to qualify seventh, and especially in France for Renault. I had a good session, even though I experienced a little understeer at the beginning, and then made a mistake on the final run by locking up into turn eight, which obviously meant I lost time. Tomorrow, I hope we can keep the tyres in good condition and compete for points in our home race!"

Jarno Trulli, 8th position

"I made the best I could of the session. We have been struggling with the balance of the car since the start of the weekend, and it still isn't quite right. I couldn't push to the maximum today as I didn't feel completely confident in the car on the limit. Tomorrow morning, we will have a lot of work to do in order to try and catch up some of the time we lost yesterday, but I still think that we will be capable of scoring points."

Mike Gascoyne, Technical Director, Mild Seven Renault F1 Team

"Seventh and eighth are pretty much where we expected to be today. Jenson suffered from some oversteer early in the session, but we nevertheless managed to qualify in our usual positions. We still need to improve our package further in order to compete with the top three teams, but this solid qualifying performance should allow us to score points tomorrow."

Denis Chevrier, Head of Race Engineering (Engine), Mild Seven Renault F1 Team

"A useful day without any surprises. We experienced no technical problems throughout the three sessions, which meant we were able to complete preparations for both qualifying and the race. The most important things to note are the equal performance of our two cars, as well as the fact that we managed to confirm our status as fourth team at a circuit where the time gaps are traditionally small."

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