Monaco GP Shell Qualifying Report

Monaco Grand Prix Monte Carlo, Saturday 23rd May Michael Schumacher will start tomorrow's race from the second row of the grid and Eddie Irvine from the fourth. Schumacher, in the T-car, chassis 184, was fourth quickest with a time of 1m 20.702s. Irvine was seventh in 1m 21.712s. He had to switch from his race car, chassis 185, to F 300 chassis 187 after his accident. Both drivers completed eleven laps. Jean Todt "Obviously we are not happy with the way we qualified. It was a damage limitation exercise after the difficulties we had. This morning Michael could not run because of a problem with the left drive shaft, which meant the entire transmission had to be changed. In qualifying he took the T-car. Eddie could have improved his time a little but on his sixth lap he hit the barrier and damaged the car. He improved when he went out in the spare car, but it was not enough to make up a place. It will be a very long tough race and we know that, here at Monaco, anything can happen." Michael Schumacher "On Thursday I expected we would be a bit nearer to the pole time. However, today I think I might have gone just one tenth of a second quicker, so I got almost the maximum out of the car, which was very well balanced. From this morning it was obvious that Bridgestone runners had an advantage in terms of traction out of the corners. Together with Goodyear we are working in the right direction to improve for the future. As for the race, I hope to get on the podium." Eddie Irvine "I was on a very good lap when I had my accident, but I lost control of the back end of the car and went into the tyres. I do not think I have hurt myself but I might be a bit stiff tomorrow. Once Michael's race car became the spare car it was changed to my settings. I knew I only had one 3 lap run on which I managed to improve but it was not enough. On the positive side, I am on the right tyres for the race and the car is very good in race trim. But the hard part will be getting past Frentzen as I think he is on soft tyres." Chassis: Schumacher 184, Irvine 185 & 187 Temperatures: air 20 C, track 30 C