Hungarian GP: Renault Friday qualifying notes

For the Mild Seven Renault F1 Team, Friday at the Hungarian Grand Prix ends with the satisfaction of first place for Jarno Trulli, but also the feeling that there is still work to do in order to be competitive on Sunday. Trulli took the Friday `pole' with a faultless lap, while Fernando Alonso, after losing a large part of this morning's free practice session with an engine problem, nevertheless qualified sixth.

Jarno Trulli, 1st, 1:22.358

"It is a satisfying result after a difficult day: the track is very slippery, which meant that we weren't able to get the most out of our two hours this morning. I honestly didn't expect to be so quick, because the car isn't well balanced at the moment. I need to work hard with the engineers tonight to find a better balance and improve the car for tomorrow."

Fernando Alonso, 6th, 1:22.953

"I'm in a good position for Saturday qualifying. Given that I lost a large part of the practice session this morning, and that the track conditions changed in the meantime, sixth is pretty good. At the moment, the car hasn't got enough grip, so I'm hoping to find more of that, and a little bit of luck, for tomorrow."

Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering:

"Considering the balance of the cars is a long way from being optimised, we can only assume that our competitors are having more problems than us on this very low grip circuit. To see Jarno take the pole is a credit to the whole team, both here at the circuit and back at the factory, and I am sure that if Fernando had not lost time this morning, he would have been capable of matching his team-mate's pace. There are still many questions to answer, but we will work through them logically tomorrow."

Denis Chevrier, Engine Operations Manager:

"On the engine side, we worked well this morning, and it is obviously satisfying to see one of our cars set the fastest time. There is still a question mark over performance, though, as we saw some cars go slower this afternoon than during practice. That shows how fragile a good performance can be at this circuit, and also indicates that it will be a tricky exercise to set the car up correctly for seventy laps on Sunday."

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