German GP: Ferrari Friday qualifying notes

Ferrari eigth and ninth in the first qualifying session

Jean Todt:

"Ending the first qualifying session with our cars in eighth and ninth places is certainly not what we are used to. Today, the opposition proved to be very quick over the single lap. However, we know that Friday's times are not necessarily representative of what we can expect on Sunday. Tomorrow, the choice of tyre type for the second qualifying session and the race will be crucial. This morning's free practice threw up interesting indications as regards the rest of the weekend."

Rubens Barrichello:

"This morning I had a few problems finding the best set-up on the car. The situation improved for qualifying, but not sufficiently for us to be fighting for the top spots. On my timed lap, I made a small mistake in the third sector. Judging by what we have seen today, we do not seem to have the advantage here which we enjoyed at Silverstone, but this does not mean we won't be in the running right to the end. Now, we have to work to try and extract all the potential which the car has at its disposal."

Michael Schumacher:

"This was not the best qualifying lap of my career, but it wasn't bad. The track was quite slippery because of the other cars which ran on the track in between our two sessions, resulting in the marshals having to clean the track, so perhaps being first on the road this afternoon was a further slight disadvantage. Our competitors seem to have a very strong package over one lap. But we can be confident for the race, because in this morning's free practice session, we saw that our tyres performed very consistently in race trim with a heavy fuel load."

Ross Brawn:

"A somewhat disappointing result given that we looked quite competitive this morning, but maybe not competitive enough. Now we will work on improving the car. Neither driver is completely satisfied with the set-up, so we know we have room to improve in this area. From what we saw in free practice, the tyres are very good in terms of consistency. It might turn out that we won't be on the front row tomorrow, but we can be confident about Sunday's race."

Rubens Barrichello 8th
1.15.399 3 laps
chassis 230

Michael Schumacher 9th
1.15.456 3 laps
chassis 231

-ferrari-