Alesi Confident Ahead of Qualifying

Frenchman Jean Alesi was confident of a good result in Saturday's qualifying after setting the ninth quickest time in practice for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, one of the veteran Jordan driver's favourite circuits.

Alesi, who clinched his first point for the Silverstone-based team at the Belgian Grand Prix two weeks ago, has scored his only two pole positions at the Monza circuit in 1994 and 1997. The Jordan driver, who is yet to announce his plans for 2002, was confident of a good qualifying.

"This is the first time I have run the car with the small wings you need for the straights at Monza," said Alesi. 'I need to get the maximum amount of confidence in the car with this low level of downforce. It's very important to go step by step.

"I have started to work on the set-up and I'm very confident for tomorrow. I like the circuit, I have a good feeling with the team, particularly the relationship between myself and my race engineer."

Teammate Jarno Trulli endured a difficult day after his car was hit by brake problems in the afternoon session. The Italian driver had to settle with twelfth place.

"It's been a difficult day," said Trulli. "In the second session, I couldn't work at all because I had a few problems with the brakes. It means I have no idea about the tyres but, otherwise, the car set-up seems pretty good but, as I say, I don't know what tyres to choose for qualifying and the race. We'll have to do that tomorrow morning."