Formula 1
US GP: Renault Saturday qualifying notes
A disappointing overall result for the Mild Seven Renault F1 Team following second qualifying at Indianapolis, with Fernando Alonso finishing sixth and Jarno Trulli tenth. The Spaniard worked throughout the morning on improving a difficult car ...
Published: Sep 29, 2003, 4:55 PM
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A disappointing overall result for the Mild Seven Renault F1 Team following second qualifying at Indianapolis, with Fernando Alonso finishing sixth and Jarno Trulli tenth. The Spaniard worked throughout the morning on improving a difficult car balance, and although the resulting qualifying set-up was still not perfect, he managed to claim sixth place on the grid.
Jarno Trulli suffered an accident at the end of warm-up, sustaining damage to both the front and rear of his car, but the Italian was last to run this afternoon, which gave the team sufficient time to make the necessary repairs. However, he was unable to repeat his performances from earlier in the weekend, and will start tenth tomorrow.
Fernando Alonso, 6th, 1:12.087
"We have improved the car since this morning, and I was happier with the handling than during practice. Nevertheless, it still feels nervous, with understeer in some corners and oversteer in others. Still, I will be starting from a competitive position tomorrow. I know the title contenders are close by me on the grid, but I will be looking to make up positions at the start and drive a normal race. I don't want to disrupt the fight for the title and the surest way of doing that is to finish in front of them."
Jarno Trulli, 10th, 1:12.566
"Firstly, I want to thank all the mechanics, who did a fantastic job to get the car ready after my accident in the warm-up. As for the qualifying lap, nothing felt quite right: I made small mistakes all the way round the lap, and I perhaps had some trouble adapting to changing track conditions. It is disappointing to start from so far back, but we have already shown this weekend that our package is very competitive. We have chosen a good strategy and I am intending to drive an attacking race tomorrow."
Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering:
"Fernando and his crew have had to work hard to get the car balanced this weekend and while it is still not perfect, they have made considerable progress, resulting in a competitive sixth place on the grid. Jarno appears to have suffered from his accident during the warm-up, and tenth position is not representative of his pace all weekend. We are pleased with the tyre choice we have made and our strategy, and expect to have a competitive, exciting race tomorrow. Finally, a big thank-you to all the mechanics who worked so hard to get Jarno's car out for qualifying."
Denis Chevrier, Engine Operations Manager:
"Compared to our promising performance this morning, I think we have good reason to be disappointed with the overall result. Jarno's position is a reflection of his incident during warm-up, while Fernando's in fact represents a steady increase in performance since the beginning of the weekend. We are starting from further back than we had hoped, but it will be a close fight tomorrow and we know the car is competitive. We may not be able to demonstrate this competitiveness at the very start of the race, but we should certainly see it emerge during what will be a long race, and hopefully it will merit us a strong result."
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