US GP: Minardi Saturday qualifying notes

On a day beset with tyre-related issues, Minardi F1 Team drivers Christijan Albers and Patrick Friesacher produced useful qualifying performances for tomorrow's sixth running of the United States Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Albers set the 18th fastest time, and Friesacher, the 20th, although the final starting positions for both men will ultimately be determined by the outcome of discussions that will take place later this afternoon concerning the developing tyre situation.

During the final two official practice sessions of the weekend, the Faenza squad continued its normal preparations for Sunday's race, Albers and Friesacher spending the morning working with their engineers on further adjustments to chassis set-up in order to cope with the demands of both this afternoon's qualifying session and tomorrow's race.

Christijan Albers:

"It was a reasonable lap, but we will have to see what happens tomorrow with strategy and with the big story of the weekend, concerning tyres. Maybe events will play into our hands a little bit, but at the moment, it is not clear how the situation is going to develop."

Patrick Friesacher:

"It was not a bad qualifying lap, even if there was a little bit of understeer and the traction was not as good as I would have liked. All told, though, I'm quite confident for tomorrow. The Bridgestones have been holding up well, and I think we may well race better than we qualified."

Paul Stoddart, Team Principal, Minardi Cosworth:

"Both Minardi drivers performed well all day, allowing us to trade lap times with our nearest competitor, Jordan. Indeed, that is how qualifying ended up, with both teams on pretty much an equal footing. We now look forward to tomorrow's race, which could be very interesting indeed, pending discussions on tyre issues."

CHRISTIJAN ALBERS
Chassis: PS05/01
Best lap: 1 min 13.632 secs
Position: 18th

PATRICK FRIESACHER
Chassis: PS05/02
Best lap: 1 min 14.494 secs
Position: 20th

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