20.03.2004 STEADY QUALIFYING SESSION IN MALAYSIA LEAVES MINARDI CAUTIOUSLY OPTIMISTIC FOR THE RACE
Wilux
Minardi Cosworth personnel
carried on with their preparations for Sunday’s Malaysian Grand Prix in the same
vein as yesterday, working steadily through
a technical programme aimed at
finalising details for this afternoon’s two qualifying sessions and setting the
final specification for the Minardi PS04B chassis to be used in tomorrow’s
race.
Ultimately, qualifying produced a positive result for the Faenza team,
Gianmaria Bruni
recording the 16th fastest time of the afternoon, while team mate,
Zsolt Baumgartner,
was 17th.
With the distinct possibility of rain in the vicinity of the Sepang
International Circuit tomorrow afternoon holding out the prospect of an
unexpected result, the Faenza squad feels it has every reason to be cautiously
optimistic going into Sunday’s race.
GIANMARIA BRUNI ( Best lap: 1 min 38.577 secs, Position: 16th )
“It was good, as we matched our best lap time this morning in
qualifying. Personally, I was very pleased to finish my first Formula One
qualifying session after the problem we had in Melbourne, and I will admit I was
just a little bit nervous before qualifying started.
"On my second qualifying run, I had good times in the first two sectors, but
then made a mistake in the last sector and missed an apex, which probably cost
me two-tenths of a second. Everyone on the team did a really good job today, and
although I’m sure it will be a tough race, we will try our best.”
ZSOLT BAUMGARTNER ( Best lap: 1 min 39.272 secs, Position: 17th )
“I’m not too happy with this afternoon’s result, as we did a faster lap this
morning. I made a mistake in the third sector on what should have been my
fastest lap and lost quite a bit of time as a result. I really thought we could
have done better. It’s good that we’re starting in front of three other drivers
tomorrow, though, and my hope now is for a reliable car and a positive race
result.”
PAUL STODDART
“All things said, I think we saw a good performance today from both drivers. We’ve been there or thereabouts all weekend when it comes to splitting the Jordans, and in reality, although we also have a BAR and a Renault starting behind us tomorrow, it’s clear who we’re racing. Both Gimmi and Zsolt have given 100 per cent this weekend, and we feel we’re in good shape for tomorrow’s race.”
Chassis allocation: Bruni (No 20) PS04B/02, Baumgartner (No 21) PS04B/01, Spare car (Bruni) PS04B/04