French Grand Prix - Qualifying Round-Up Saturday 21 June 2008
Today's Weather: Mainly sunny. Air 27-28°C, track 41-50°C
Best 2008 grid position: 3rd Jarno Trulli (Malaysia)
Best 2008 race result: 4th Jarno Trulli (Malaysia), Timo Glock (Canada)
Jarno Trulli (Car 11, Chassis TF108-05)
Summary: Fine late lap earns a place on row two PROVISIONAL GRID: 4th
FP3 6th Best Lap Time: 1m 16.147s (+0.397s) Laps: 20
Q1 3rd Best Lap Time: 1m 15.521s (+0.497s) Laps: 7
Q2 4th Best Lap Time: 1m 15.362s (+0.321s) Laps: 6
Q3 5th Best Lap Time: 1m 16.920s (+0.471s) Laps: 6
"That was a great qualifying session so I'm really pleased both for myself and for the team to get two cars into the top ten. I didn't expect to be so quick but I've been building up to this all weekend. The car was well balanced and everything went well, particularly my last lap.
Early in Q3 I spun because I was pushing hard to find the limit with fuel on board. I didn't panic and I just changed a few settings for the last run. We'll have to see how it goes tomorrow but I have high hopes because so far I've felt even more confident driving the car in race trim.
Clearly this is a particularly important weekend for us as we are remembering Ove Andersson and everything he has done for us. This is a good start and we want to dedicate everything we achieve this weekend to him."
Timo Glock (Car 12, Chassis TF108-06)
Summary: Quick throughout en route to row five PROVISIONAL GRID: 9th
FP3 11th Best Lap Time: 1m 16.344s (+0.594s) Laps: 20
Q1 7th Best Lap Time: 1m 15.727s (+0.703s) Laps: 7
Q2 7th Best Lap Time: 1m 15.558s (+0.517s) Laps: 6
Q3 10th Best Lap Time: 1m 17.596s (+1.147s) Laps: 8
"Following our problems in practice yesterday, we are happy with this result. But I am still having a hard time with the tyres. On low fuel we had a competitive pace that was similar to Jarno but on high fuel loads in Q3 I struggled a bit.
So we still have to work to find a better way to manage the tyres for tomorrow. Still, this is definitely a positive result today. We have both cars in the top ten which is good for the team who have been working very hard at the track and back in Cologne. Hopefully we can score some points in the race."
Pascal Vasselon - Senior General Manager Chassis
"After our difficult qualifying session in Montreal to have a day like this is welcome. It's especially satisfying because we have come here with a major upgrade of the car, both aerodynamically and an evolution in the suspension. So we are obviously very happy to see that has worked well.
Timo was struggling a bit yesterday but he and his engineer have done a good job since yesterday evening to bring him back up to the pace today. Now we must prepare for a very hot race tomorrow. We are in very good position with both cars but the race will be all about tyre management.
It will be very hot and Magny-Cours puts a high stress on the tyres. For now we have to thank all the people working at the factory who pushed through all the new parts that we have here.
Their good efforts have been rewarded. Now we willwork hardto convert this into a fitting tribute for Ove Andersson tomorrow."
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