ETCC: Imola: Qualifying quotes

Fabrizio GIOVANARDI - AutoDelta Squadra Corse, pole position
"It's two years now since I was on pole position the last time. Definitely too long! I'm very happy. The team has done a lot of work, and we have found a good set-up for qualifying. It will be difficult in the race, though. We have a new component in the car. During the last two races, we encountered a lot of difficulties, so we're trying this now. We have never tested it in a long run though. We'll have to wait for the races tomorrow and see how this goes."

Gabriele TARQUINI - AutoDelta Squadra Corse, 2nd
"The qualifying result is better than what we hoped for! I was very surprised to find all the three Alfas in the front. This seems to be a very good track for us. We are better here now than we were during the winter tests last February. I'm happy. I'm not too far away from the leader of the Championship, and I can gain some points tomorrow to keep fighting for the title again."

Augusto FARFUS - AutoDelta Squadra Corse, 3rd
"The strategy for tomorrow is very simple: to have three Alfa Romeo drivers on the podium in both races, with me, Gabriele (Tarquini) and Fabrizio (Giovanardi). I hope that Gabriele can finish first twice, though, because he's the only one fighting for the Championship."

Jordi GENÉ - SEAT Sport, 4th
"It's a good result for me. Such a qualifying time would have resulted in a pole position in any of the four or five latest events. But here the Alfa Romeo were much faster than we expected. I am a bit upset, because I missed the best moment of my tyres due to the red flag; but when the session resumed I was so infuriated that my rage propelled me to a perfect lap. I took a few risks, and it worked."

Salvatore TAVANO - Oregon Team, 5th
"We realized this morning, with a bit of surprise I should say, that despite the heat all the Alfas were very fast. We have worked very well on the set-up, and we can see the results. Now we have to wait and see how much the front tyres will degrade on the race distance. I'm sure that the second half of the race will be tough."

Luca RANGONI - Oregon Team, 6th
"I was expecting such a result, because we have worked very well this morning. It's a shame for the problem I had at the beginning of the qualifying: a piece of the front roll-bar was broken, and this resulted in me wasting a set of tyres. Otherwise I think I could have achieved a position within the top-four. I want to be realistic for the races: we know that if it's very hot we will be struggling, but I will try my best to get the most out of the first race."

Alessandro BALZAN - JAS Motorsport, 8th
"I'm delighted. This has been my best qualifying so far since the beginning of the year. We are consistently improving, but I did not expect to be so quick today. Unfortunately I couldn't properly use my last set of new tyres due to the red flag. We have nearly filled our gap from the Oregon Alfas, and we can still improve a bit. My only regret is that, despite being eighth overall, I'm still only third of the Independents."

Andy PRIAULX - BMW Team Great Britain, 9th
"It's not an ideal situation. It's a bit like Valencia, when the Alfas were a second quicker than anybody else. I'm not surprised to see that they were fastest, because we know that this track, with the kerbs and everything, is good for them and for SEAT; however they surprised me for being so much faster. But tomorrow we have two races, and maybe we can make up for today and score some good points for the championship. Definitely I didn't give up my chances of winning tomorrow with the reverse grid."

Dirk MÜLLER - BMW Team Deutschland, 19th
"It was a very bad qualifying for me. I had gearbox problems and couldn't do better than that. I lost all the gears, and I managed to post at least one lap time, but nothing more. We have been very surprised by the Alfa Romeos' pace. In Vallelunga we were lapping in the same times, as well as when we tested here in February; then, all of a sudden, we are two seconds behind. I don't know what's going on."

-fia/etcc-