San Marino GP Saturday Ferrari notes

Imola, 1st May

Michael Schumacher: third, 1.26.538, 12 laps Eddie Irvine: fourth, 1.26.993, 11 laps

Jean Todt "Today we have both our cars on the second row of the grid with a much reduced gap to our main rivals. This proves that all our hard work since the last race has paid off. After yesterday's practice our target was the second row, but for a while it looked as though we might have a car on the front row. We came very close. I think it will be an open race tomorrow. We will try and put on a good show in front of all our fans and the staff of the Race Department who will be here tomorrow in a special grandstand."

Michael Schumacher "This is a lot better than Brazil, because being only two tenths behind pole is closer than I expected. But I am a bit disappointed with my own performance. I did not manage to drive a perfect lap. I could have gone better and pole position was within my reach. I must than everyone in the team who worked day and night and did a great job of developing the car since last race. This means we are in good shape for the tomorrow's race. Let's wait and see what happens."

Eddie Irvine "I am quite happy with my position, but less so with my time. I lost half my quick laps because of yellow flags and in those conditions it is difficult to improve. I used the new front wing today and it has made a slight improvement to the car. I know what we have to do for tomorrow's race set-up. We are getting closer to our main rivals, as I said we would and we are in a much better situation now than we were at the same time last season."

Chassis: Schumacher no. 193, Irvine no. 191 Temperatures: air 22 C, track 45 C