Qualifying Quotes - Belgian Grand Prix.

Mika Hakkinen:

''Obviously, I'm pleased to take my second consecutive Belgian Grand Prix pole position. We found a good set-up for the car and the team did a great job. We improved the car throughout the qualifying, and I'm optimistic for tomorrow's race.''

Jarno Trulli:

''I'm really happy for me and for the team. We have been through a lot of difficult times this season and it is time our luck changed. I want to thank everyone, not just here at Spa, but back in the factory as well. I don't know if I could have taken pole from Hakkinen but, certainly, my last lap was quicker until I came across yellow flags just before the last corner and had to slow as a result. We had continued to make small changes to the car and the last change, before that final lap, made it really good. I found this an amazing circuit. Taking Eau Rouge and Blanchimont flat in a really competitive car was something I had not been able to do before. I enjoyed qualifying very much!''

Jenson Button:

''I'm ecstatic, I really didn't expect to be that far towards the front. Truthfully, I expected to be in the top six and the second row is obviously a great result for me. We didn't change anything on the car during qualifying because the session was just about me pushing to the limit. I can't wait to race tomorrow hoping to collect some points. This track is unique and has a lot of great corners, not just Eau Rouge. I haven't taken it flat out as I am going to save that for next year. In one hour I will wake up and realise that I'm just third - a racer is never happy until he's on pole.''

Michael Schumacher:

''I cannot honestly say that this was an entirely satisfying qualifying session for us. Being fourth on the grid and almost a second off the pole is not what we expected. I remember that after qualifying in Budapest nobody expected Hakkinen to win, but we all saw what happened there. Now we must look at our performance to understand what we need to do to be as well prepared as possible for tomorrow's race. On my second run, which turned out to be my best, I was slowed by traffic in the second sector. Then on my third run, I had to slow again because of the yellow flags, as can be seen from my third sector. Tomorrows race will be very interesting, especially as the weather could be different to today's.''

David Coulthard:

'In reality I only had one real run today. Two of my attempts were spoilt by traffic and, in the closing minutes of the session, the yellow flags at the Bus Stop chicane prevented me from improving my time, as I had to lift. The balance of the car was reasonable but I was struggling for overall grip.''

Ralf Schumacher:

''All in all, the BMW WilliamsFl Team has performed better than I expected here at Spa, My last fast lap could have been better though - unluckily I found a slower car in my way in the second sector. It's quite unusual that both McLaren-Mercedes and the Ferraris are not at the top here.''

Jacques Villeneuve:

''I made a mistake at the chicane on my final lap which cost me two or three tenths and that could have been very useful on the grid. I wasn't able to take Eau Rouge 'flat' because the back was a bit loose, but we were still among the quickest on the exit of the corner. I think we can expect a strong race performance tomorrow and if we get a good start we should be able to aim for at least a points finish and possibly a podium.''

Heinz-Harald Frentzen:

''It was my mistake, I didn't see [Coulthard]. The radio communication is very bad at that point and I didn't realise he was there until the last minute. On the next lap, I lost downforce and went off the road when running behind him. Then, at the end of my best lap, I came across Coulthard at the same place where I had blocked him before. He had already blocked me once and he did it again, which I thought was a bit unfair. I had to miss the corner completely and my time was disallowed. Then on my final run, I had problems with traffic, so it was an up and down day, really.''

Johnny Herbert:

''It feels good to be in the top ten. It's a bit of a shame that, after running in seventh and eighth for most of the session, l got pipped down to ninth at the last minute, but overall I'm happy with my performance so far this weekend. We're up against the big boys, so have to improve a lot to compete but we have made a step forward here. The race tomorrow is going to be tough. Tyre degradation is a real problem, but I'm happy with the rate set-up we found at the end of yesterday's session, so it could be a good race for us and, hopefully, I can get to the end of it with points.''

Rubens Barrichello:

''I have been unable to find the ideal set-up all weekend. Finally, on my third run, the car seemed to be going better and I was setting a good time and could have made up a few important places on the grid. However, at the entry to the chicane, I locked the wheels and ended up spinning. Then when I came back to the pits I had to stop at the scrutineering and I lost further time when the stewards checked the weight of the car and there was no time left to make a proper final run.''

Ron Dennis [Team principal - McLaren]:

''A well-deserved pole position for Mika, who systematically improved his car with his engineers. David's time is a result of traffic and the impact on his set-up caused by losing track time due to a puncture yesterday and a hydraulics problem this morning.''

Jean Todt [Team manager - Ferrari]:

''This was a disappointing qualifying session for both our drivers. We have to accept that, for various reasons, we never managed to extract all the potential of our car and neither driver managed a perfect lap. On his last run, Michael had to slow in the third sector because of the yellow flags. After spinning on his third run, Rubens had to stop at the scrutineering check, losing precious time. That meant he had to push hard on the out lap of his fourth run to cross the line before the end of the sixty minutes. This caused excessive tyre wear, which prevented him from improving. Given our start positions, tomorrow our objective has to be to improve on them.''

Giancarlo Fisichella:

''We don't know yet exactly what the problem was on my car, but I lost power at the end of my first flying lap and had to abort it. With only seven minutes to go I hadn't even qualified, but luckily I got out in the T-car, which was changed back from Alex to me. I did the best I could but the car wasn't set up for me and I only had one chance.''

Eddie Irvine:

''I only managed one quick lap during the session. On my first run, I was held up by a couple of cars on slow-down laps and, on the final run, like a few others, I was the victim of Jean Alesi's spin, when I had to slow for yellow flag. I guess that's the price we all pay for leaving it late. In truth, I may have been able to snatch a few tenths here or there, but that wouldn't have elevated me too much. I've been struggling all weekend with a big imbalance with the car, which has meant I've had to battle with understeer in the slow-speed comers. As usual, anything can happen in the race here, so maybe I can cash in.''

Ricardo Zonta:

''My confidence gets better with every lap here, but I am still not fast enough through Eau Rouge and that is where I am losing most of my time. We still have some understeer and the long middle section of the lap is where any balance problems affect you most. We need to do some more work on the set-up to try to cure it for tomorrow.''

Nick Heidfeld:

''I am quite satisfied with today's performance, especially after the difficulties we had yesterday in finding a good set-up. We definitely improved the car, even during the qualifying session, when we only made small adjustments. I think we have good base for the race.''

Pedro Diniz:

''The balance of the car was still pretty difficult for me this afternoon, but I lost my best lap because Jean had spun at the Bus Stop chicane and there were yellow flags out. We certainly improved the car today; the behaviour at high speed was better, but I still had oversteer in the slow corners. But I like this track, and in the circumstances I think I managed to get the best out of the package that we had.''

Pedro de la Rosa:

''Well, we definitely weren't expecting to be in these positions, especially not at this circuit, but we've proved that we still have a lot of work to do with the car, particularly on the slow corners as we are losing too much time so I'm really disappointed. I'm annoyed with my qualifying because on two occasions I was between three and four tenths quicker until Bus Stop, once because I nearly lost it and also once because of Alesi spinning and there was a yellow flag so I couldn't overtake the Williams, so I lost my best lap so I'm not happy about my qualifying position. Those three or four tenths quicker that I was running would have put me maybe three positions higher, so anyway, there's a lot of work to do. I just lost all the time at Bus Stop that I gained on the back of the circuit. This morning we were concentrating on different qualifying set ups and we didn't have any problems, but unfortunately they didn't work.''

Jean Alesi:

''I did not have the chance to do one clear lap in the whole session and I suffered principally from a strong oversteer. In my last attempt, I wanted to give the maximum, but I spun off at the Bus Stop chicane.''

Mika Salo:

''Overall, we improved the balance of the car since yesterday, but I didn't have enough grip. It was twitchy under braking, and the back end would lock up and slide, and then when you got on the throttle you'd just get wheelspin. Personally I hope the forecast is right: I hope that it rains tomorrow.''

Alex Wurz:

''Well, what can I say! On my first run my first split was faster than Hakkinen, who is now on pole, but I couldn't finish the lap because of an engine failure. I had one run in the T car which wasn't set up for me and had too much oversteer. Its extremely disappointing.''

Jos Verstappen:

''I think overall it's been a bad weekend. We lost time on Friday because of some problems with the car and I only managed eight laps this morning before we had an electrical problem so I didn't get any running in the second practice session. Then for qualifying, I must say the first run didn't feel bad, but then I mis-braked on the first corner and that was when the car really felt at its best and at least the car still did turn in, but things don't feel good.''

Marc Gene:

''Of course I'm disappointed with today's qualifying session, first of all because a problem, which is still under investigation, forced me to give up the first set of tyres, and, secondly, because even in the subsequent runs my car never felt really good. We did an adjustment in the third run which gave a better result. However, I always experienced problems with the brakes since this morning. Unfortunately during my third interim time Alesi held me up on track with an unfair manoeuvre and forced me to overtake him passing through the chicane thus losing the possibility to improve my time. All in all today was not a productive day with only two runs completed and with a lot of trouble in terms of braking.''

Gaston Mazzacane:

''I improved my time run after run thanks to a few modifications and the car had a good driveability. However, I am not satisfied with today's qualifying because, honestly, I hoped for a better result. I expected to improve over this morning's time in order to lower the gap with the other cars, but unfortunately we were unable to be particularly competitive. Our lack of horsepower put us at a marked disadvantage, however now we must concentrate on preparing tomorrow's race as better as we can.''

Patrick Head [Technical director - WilliamsF1]:

''It's obviously a very, very good qualifying result - for both the drivers, but especially for Jenson. To have both cars in the top six is a good position to start the race. The races here are always full of surprises. Now we have to take care that we prepare thoroughly for it.''

Dr Mario Thiessen [Director - BMW Motorsport]:

''This qualifying result is excellent, our best so far. We are going to start our race for the second consecutive time from the second row, which basically means that we are in the front of the battle. We are particularly pleased that we have managed to achieve this in Spa, as it is a true engine test circuit. We have prepared ourselves well for this time. The latest engine specification that we ran
today in both cars is called 'Spa', as we prepared it specifically for this race. A version of this engine was already used in Budapest but, because of the natural characteristics of that track, the effect wasn't that significant. This step forward consists of several items that tend on one side to improve the engine performance, on the other to reduce friction losses.''

Flavio Briatore [Managing director - Benetton Formula]:

''Disastrous Qualifying! The only positive thing to come out of today was the miraculous job the mechanics did to get both Alex and Giancarlo out in the T-car and considering the circumstances the drivers did a good job too.''

Tom Walkinshaw [Team principal - Arrows F1]:

''It's just incredibly disappointing. We came here thinking the cars would do well but we just haven't got the balance on the car right and haven't really been able to solve the understeer problem.''

Gary Anderson [Technical director - Jaguar Racing]:

''Johnny did a very competent job today. We made a set-up change for his last run hoping it would move us Into the top six, but it didn't improve the car at all. I think he can expect to run a good race. With Michael and DC down the order a little, and an unfamiliar look to the top three, the start could be very interesting. Our starts have improved over the past few races, so I would expect Johnny to be mixing it at the front end. Eddie has bean playing catch-up all weekend, and hasn't been comfortable with the car at any stage. Maybe the weather gods will smile on him tomorrow.''