Italian GP: Renault Friday qualifying notes

First qualifying unfolded as expected for the Mild Seven Renault F1 Team at Monza. After a good morning's work during private testing and free practice, Jarno Trulli and Fernando Alonso finished the day seventh and eighth respectively in the midst ...

First qualifying unfolded as expected for the Mild Seven Renault F1 Team at Monza. After a good morning's work during private testing and free practice, Jarno Trulli and Fernando Alonso finished the day seventh and eighth respectively in the midst of an extremely tightly-bunched group, with one or two tenths won or lost equating to several grid positions.

Jarno Trulli, 7th, 1:22.034

"A trouble-free day for me. The car is handling OK, but we still have some work to do in order to find more speed. Having said that, we are where we expected to be in the overall standings."

Fernando Alonso, 8th, 1:22.103

"For my timed lap, the car was a little nervous in the chicanes and I had a bit too much understeer. With this low-downforce set-up, it is hard for us to be competitive with our usual rivals. For tomorrow, we must look to improve the overall grip of the car, close the gap to those in front and get a better grid position in order that we can fight for a good result in the race."

Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering:

"Surprisingly, the conditions this morning during the test session were better than those in qualifying, as we did not have to cope with the gusting wind that sprung up late this morning. This wind made it difficult for the drivers to understand the car, especially in low-downforce set-up. Having said that, the car appears to be reasonably balanced but as we were expecting, we need more grip and to reduce the amount of time spent on the straights in order to match our usual rivals. While we may not ultimately be as competitive on this circuit as we are on others, we have nevertheless spent time on our race set-up and are satisfied with the result."

Denis Chevrier, Engine Operations Manager:

"We are in an area of the grid where a couple of tenths can make as much as four or five places' difference in terms of the final position. Although today's positions are not particularly flattering, we managed to learn what we wanted to during the morning and now have this evening and tomorrow during which to work on optimising our package. Given how close things were today, extracting the maximum from what we have available will be critical in order to qualify well."