Hungarian GP Jaguar Saturday notes

A disappointing Qualifying session for Jaguar Racing which saw Pedro de la Rosa finish in thirteenth position on the grid and Eddie Irvine one place behind in fourteenth position. Although generally happy with the way the car handled, both drivers were disappointed with the pace compared to the feedback gained during the Free Practice sessions. The Jaguar R2 handled well but finished outside the team's top ten expectations. Tomorrow's 77-lap race will certainly be a challenging one for the Jaguar Racing team as overtaking is particularly difficult at this circuit. Nevertheless the team is prepared for the challenge and will have to rely upon clever strategy and retirements to maximise their chances of scoring points.

Pedro de la Rosa
"The car felt well-balanced throughout the session. We didn't make any changes to the car and each run was focused on pushing the limit further. I'm not, however, entirely pleased because I expected to be further up the grid. We run with maximum wing levels today but I expected a little more speed if I'm honest. On my last run I locked-up coming into the second corner but I question how much time I would have gained anyway. I don't think there was any more to be extracted from the car today and while the new aero package has helped us with downforce, I am confused as to why we are not further up the grid. Life will be far from easy tomorrow and there's no option but to drive hard and hope for the best."

Eddie Irvine
"I'm obviously disappointed and at a loss to understand why I've qualified in 14th place. I was expecting to be higher, maybe towards the top ten, but overdriving the car has cost me some places. We worked on several set-ups in the run up to qualifying and I'm not sure if we could have got more from set-up. I was trying very hard indeed to the extent that I almost lost it completely a couple of times -- once in particular through the last chicane when I was literally sideways through it. We really shouldn't be this slow and combined with a few mistakes I made, we will suffer tomorrow in that our race is uphill from here. It's made all the harder to understand given the times we achieved this morning with the fuel levels on-board. This circuit is renowned for being an overtaking nightmare and I fear we're in for a very hard time tomorrow."

Bobby Rahal
"Very disappointing. I expected both cars to at least finish within or very close to the top ten and I'm surprised at not doing so. Pedro did a very good job but Eddie made some uncharacteristic mistakes that cost him places today. We have an awful lot to do if we want to score points tomorrow and most of that depends on those in front of us dropping out. Our race pace is always better than qualifying but that will be very hard to exploit during this race because of the overtaking difficulties at this track. Nonetheless, we will focus our efforts on strategy and hope for some consolation to what has been a disappointing beginning to the race weekend."

-Jaguar