Bruni Hoping for Strong Result

Minardi's Gianmaria Bruni is hoping for a good result in tomorrow's European Grand Prix despite qualifying down in 17th position.

"It has been a bit of a confusing day in that we started with the spare car, which felt quite different from my normal chassis, and then switched back to the race car," said the Italian driver.

"I especially want to thank the guys, who worked like crazy to get my race car ready in the final 15 minutes before the qualifying run. It's going to be a tough race tomorrow, but I'm going to push as hard as I can, and hope to finish with a good result."

Bruni was the quickest of the Minardi drivers, but he finished over two seconds behind the closest rival, the Sauber of Felipe Massa. Hungarian Zsolt Baumgartner wound up 18th after neither McLaren's David Coulthard nor Sauber's Giancarlo Fisichella managed to set a time due to problems.

"Overall, I think it has been a good weekend so far," said Baumgartner. " I was not particularly happy with the first sector on my qualifying run, but the remainder of the lap was not bad, and in general, I think we have made some useful progress over the last two days.

"I believe we have a good race strategy, so we will see what we can do tomorrow."