Hungarian FP Honda Saturday notes

Jarno Trulli qualified in fifth position for tomorrow's Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring, Budapest, his fifth such qualifying position and his seventh start from the front three rows of the grid for Benson and Hedges Jordan Honda in 2001. Jacques Villeneuve and Olivier Panis will line up in 10th and 11th positions respectively in their Lucky Strike BAR Hondas while Jean Alesi qualified 12th for his first race for Jordan Honda.

Michael Schumacher took a short stroll to yet another pole position in his Ferrari, needing only to complete two timed laps to assure himself of his accustomed place at the head of the grid. His challenger for the race and, to a dwindling extent, the championship, David Coulthard, took second place on the grid alongside his distant championship rival, albeit almost one second behind on the timesheet. His McLaren team-mate Mika Hakkinen was beaten into sixth position by Trulli's admirable end-of-session effort, while third and fourth on the grid are held by Schumacher's team-mate Rubens Barrichello and his brother Ralf respectively.

Jarno Trulli
"It was a very good qualifying for me and the team and I had no problems at all. We made a few adjustments to the car during the session and it performed and handled very well. The new aerodynamic revisions seem to be effective and the team has done a great job this weekend. I now hope that we can continue in this vein during the race tomorrow."

Kazutoshi Nishizawa - Technical Director, Honda Racing Development
"As usual Jarno performed well and put in a very good lap at the end. Jacques and Jean both found it difficult to achieve a good balance but they were able to improve at the end. It was an unfortunate session for Olivier as he had a problem and couldn't get a quick lap. Looking to tomorrow, we think we have a much better feel of the direction we need to go in for race set-up."

Eddie Jordan Chief Executive, Jordan Honda
"This is a great result for the team and I'm very happy. It was always going to be difficult for Jean but he put in a tremendous effort to qualify 12th after having had such limited time in the car. For Jarno to be in front of one of the McLarens is a big thing for him and he certainly made the session exciting in the final minutes. To pip Mika at the end meant that Jarno had to get everything absolutely perfect, which he clearly did."

Craig Pollock Team Principal and Managing Director, BAR Honda
"It's been a very hard start to the weekend and our qualifying positions are not quite as good as we had hoped for. Obviously the problems with Olivier's car didn't give him the position he merited from the weekend so far but we have the potential to race well from where we are. We need to stay focused now and work hard in preparation for the race to make sure we have a good set-up."

-HOnda