San Marino GP BAR qualifying notes

<pre> Jacques Villeneuve 11th Olivier Panis 8th </pre> Both drivers were working on tyre evaluation and were equally happy with the balance and set-up work carried out.

Jacques Villeneuve Position : 11th Best time : 1:24:769
"I am very disappointed. We have been very quick all weekend but in qualifying it just didn't work and I am not sure why. I didn't get a good lap in at the start and then there was traffic as we reached the end of the session. It's frustrating, but it just didn't come our way today."

Olivier Panis Position : 8th Best time : 1:24:213
"I am happy with the qualifying position I have achieved. It is my best so far this year. All the mechanics and the team did a great job. We have made some improvements and I was happy with the balance of the car. I am pleased with the result although I would have preferred pole position. I feel very positive going into the race tomorrow. ".

Malcolm Oastler, Technical Director
"From a team point of view it was a fair qualifying result. The team and drivers worked well and there were no problems with the cars. Both Jacques and Oliver were happy with the balance and the set-up that we had on the cars. During the session Jacques was held up by traffic on his last run but Oliver managed to put in a good lap, so that dictated our result. Of Late we have been stronger in the race than qualifying so we expect to improve on our position tomorrow."

Craig Pollock, Team Principal and Managing Director
"I am happy for Oliver with the qualifying position that he achieved but we could have done better. We clearly messed up by going out a little bit too early. The time was without doubt in the car, we just did not managed to get it. There is still a lot of work to do and I think it will be a good hard race tomorrow. We are looking forward to it and we are confident that we can perform well during the race."

- BAR-Honda