As a result of their
fifth- and sixth-place finishes in the
United States Grand Prix two weeks ago,
Minardi
F1 Team drivers
Christjan Albers and
Patrick Friesacher ran 15th and
16th in this afternoon’s French Grand
Prix qualifying session, and made the
most of the track conditions.
Both pushed to the maximum on their
runs, with Friesacher eventually
emerging the quicker of the two, by just
over three-tenths of a second. In
common with most other drivers, the
Minardi duo carried out only a limited
amount of running in Saturday’s
rain-dampened opening practice session,
but made up for it in the second, when a
drying track surface allowed them to
revert to grooved slicks. During the
morning sessions, the Faenza squad
concentrated on chassis set-up for both
qualifying and tomorrow’s race.
PATRICK
FRIESACHER (Best lap: 1 min 17.960 secs;
Position: 18th)
“I’m happy with
today’s qualifying. We did a good job
and the car worked well apart from a
slight problem with the downshift, which
cost me a little bit of time.
Generally, though, I’m pleased with the
lap and with our prospects for the race
tomorrow.”
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Both the Minardi drivers' pushed
to the maximum on their qualifying runs, with
Friesacher eventually emerging the quickest of the
pair, by just over three-tenths of
a second |
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As a result of their fifth- and sixth-place
finishes in the United States Grand Prix two weeks
ago, Minardi F1 Team drivers
Christjan Albers and Patrick
Friesacher ran 15th and 16th in this
afternoon’s French Grand Prix qualifying session,
and made the most of the
ideal track conditions |
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CHRISTIJAN ALBERS (Best lap: 1 min 18.335 secs; Position:
20th)
“It was a reasonable qualifying lap,
although not perfect, and there were two oversteering
moments that lost me time. I think we have a good strategy
for tomorrow, however, so as usual, it will be maximum
attack in the race.”
PAUL STODDART, Team Principal,
Minardi Cosworth
“Today Minardi completed all its
preparations for Sunday’s French Grand Prix, with both cars
performing well throughout the practice sessions and
qualifying. It’s interesting to see that there is really
nothing between us and our nearest rival, Jordan, in terms
of lap times, and we look forward to an interesting race
tomorrow.”
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