Spanish GP Friday Ferrari notes

Barcelona, 28th May

Eddie Irvine: first, 1m 23.577, 26 laps Michael Schumacher: third, 1m 23.895, 36 laps

Jean Todt "Today, especially in the second half of the session, it was difficult to get to grips with the car's performance, because of the wind. Overall, we look in pretty good shape and the performance level is similar to that which we saw in testing. Anyway, we will have a clearer picture after tomorrow's qualifying session."

Eddie Irvine "The car is performing better than it did at last week's test. It is hard to be sure exactly what the situation is, because of the strong wind. That is what caused me to lose the rear end of the car and spin this morning. The wind problem is worse than last year as the tyres now offer less grip, so we rely more on the aerodynamics. At the end of the session, we made some changes to the set-up, which improved the car in some parts of the track and made it worse in others. We will have to look at that tomorrow. Of course I am happy to be quickest today, but it does not mean much."

Michael Schumacher "We got through a lot of work today and tried many different configurations. The car feels better than at last week's test and its handling has improved. It is a bit difficult to analyse today's times because of the wind, which greatly affects lap times here. To judge our own performance accurately, we must look at the data to see who did what times in what conditions. I am fairly optimistic that we can qualify as well as we did in Monaco Grand Prix. It will be difficult, but not impossible."

Chassis: Schumacher no. 194, Irvine no. 191 Temperatures: air 25-23C, track 25-30C