Spanish GP: Minardi Saturday qualifying notes

After two smooth and untroubled official practice sessions on Friday, Wilux Minardi Cosworth experienced a problematic start to the second day of preparations for the Spanish Grand Prix when the car of Gianmaria Bruni suffered a loss of hydraulic pressure during the first morning session. Impressive work by the team's mechanics allowed Bruni to take to the track again with just under 10 minutes of the second session remaining, although it meant he was short of preparation time for qualifying.

By comparison, Zsolt Baumgartner had a quieter time, working steadily on qualifying and race set-ups during the morning. Both men drove strongly in qualifying, Bruni putting together a clean run that netted him the 18th fastest time of the afternoon, and Baumgartner, who was not entirely happy with the balance of his car, completing the afternoon in 20th.

Gianmaria Bruni:

"It was a difficult morning, but the guys did a fantastic job to sort out the problem, and I'm pleased for them that we were able to set a decent time this afternoon. We made our tyre choice at the end of yesterday, but the problem was that without any chance to do any real running this morning, I had no idea how the tyres would feel at the limit on the track. Fortunately, my engineer came up with something and it worked well, so I am very happy. We are certainly in better shape here than we were at Imola, and I now hope for a good, clean race tomorrow with no mistakes."

Zsolt Baumgartner:

"I think we had two reasonably good sessions this morning, although the cool temperature meant it was difficult to find a good balance for the chassis. Unfortunately, we continued to struggle with that in qualifying. I'm disappointed, because I think I could have done a better lap time this afternoon, but we'll work with what we've got and hope to have a strong race tomorrow."

Paul Stoddart, Team Principal, Wilux Minardi Cosworth:

"Barcelona is a track where Minardi gives away a bit of time to those teams that are testing here almost continuously. It's therefore pleasing to see our times were quite respectable today, and although we still need to improve, I'm confident we'll have an interesting race tomorrow."

GIANMARIA BRUNI
Chassis: PS04B/02 (No.20)
Best lap: 1 min 19.817 secs
Position: 18th

ZSOLT BAUMGARTNER
Chassis: PS04B/01 (No.21)
Best lap: 1 min 21.470 secs
Position: 20th

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