Spanish GP: Minardi Sunday qualifying notes

Minardi F1 Team drivers Christijan Albers and Patrick Friesacher recorded the 17th and 18th fastest laps respectively in today's final qualifying session for the Spanish Grand Prix, and on aggregate times, would therefore normally start from those positions on the grid.

With Tiago Monteiro, Nick Heidfeld and Rubens Barrichello all having to drop positions as the penalty for unscheduled engine changes to their cars, however, the Minardi drivers will each move up three spots on the starting grid.

Christijan Albers:

"This morning's run wasn't too bad from my perspective, and I'm quite happy with how things have gone, but the most important thing now is the race this afternoon. We are definitely going in the right direction with the car, although there remains development to do on it. The Bridgestone tyres are working well here, and every time we run the car we are finding out more about it and making steady progress. I'm feeling positive."

Patrick Friesacher:

"The car was not handling so well on that run, and therefore I couldn't really push to the maximum. I'm finding the front end just a bit too aggressive on turn-in, so we have to work on that. There is no doubt the PS05 has a lot of potential; we just need to spend some more time testing and in the wind tunnel to unlock that potential."

CHRISTIJAN ALBERS
Q1+Q2: 2 min 41.141 secs
Position: 17th

PATRICK FRIESACHER
Q1+Q2: 2 min 42.759 secs
Position: 18th

-minardi-