San Marino GP: BAR Saturday notes

Lucky Strike B.A.R Honda drivers Jacques Villeneuve and Olivier Panis qualified for the San Marino Grand Prix in 10th and 12th positions respectively today. After a frustrating first day's running, the team made steady progress throughout today's practice and qualifying sessions and will start tomorrow's race from their best grid positions of the season.

Jacques Villeneuve
"After the start we made to the weekend we should be very happy with today's result. We've made a number of small changes for this race and the team have done a lot of work over the past two days to get the most from them. The track seems to suit the car and we're starting from the first half of the grid, so if we can get a good first lap we should be in with a chance of getting a point."

Olivier Panis
"It looks like the hard work done during the last two tests is starting to pay off and I'm very pleased for the team. 10th and 12th is definitely a step forward for us. We had a difficult start to the weekend and yesterday showed us that we had a lot of work to do to improve the car for qualifying. I was a little disappointed with my own qualifying session because I don't think we found the best set-up for me. On the positive side, we have been reliable all weekend so we need to stay focused and make the most of every opportunity tomorrow."

David Richards, Team Principal
"I'm very pleased with the way the team has performed today. After a difficult time on Friday, we produced a good solid result in the sessions this morning and in qualifying. I feel that our new structure is beginning to pay dividends in terms of the way we work at the track, and as a result we're doing a much better job of extracting the maximum performance from the car. We need to keep up the momentum and get a good result tomorrow."

Geoffrey Willis, Technical Director
"We appear to have made good progress with our reliability issues and have therefore had two days of consistent running which has allowed us to gradually improve the performance of the car. In the dry running today the car has responded well to set-up changes, and as a result we have followed a planned programme steadily improving the car throughout practice and qualifying. As a result we are much closer to where we should be at this stage. The team have done a good job."