Friday's Selected Quotes - Britain

Pedro de la Rosa - 1st: "I'm very pleased with our overall performance. The car works very well here at Silverstone. The two long runs in the second session with 17 and 16 laps provided us with plenty of useful data, which should give my team mates a basis for the rest of the weekend. The Michelin tyres are performing well, but we still have to work a little on the balance at high speeds. We made some changes to the car's set-up between the sessions which worked very well."

Juan Pablo Montoya - 3rd: "The outcome of today's runs was satisfying. We made significant progress with our Michelin tyre evaluation programme. I experienced a bit of understeer in the first sector especially through Becketts, but otherwise I'm happy with the performance of our package. I think we should have another strong weekend, but I'm going to work extra hard on my qualifying lap to balance out having to go out somewhat early."

Kimi Raikkonen - 4th: "An uneventful practice which is always a bonus. We had a good basis from the last time we tested here at Silverstone, but there is still some work to do before everything is perfect. It was quite windy which caused some understeer which we tried to balance out. I'm not 100 per cent happy with the car at the moment but the lap times seem to be OK, so hopefully we can put in a strong challenge for pole position tomorrow."

Ron Dennis: "Silverstone lap times have always been reflective of the grip levels, which vary considerably from week to week and together with today's breezy conditions made finding the set-up a little more challenging. The weather forecast for the balance of the weekend seems to be ever improving which I think will suit our team, and we will continue to work hard to ensure a competitive showing in Sunday's race."

Norbert Haug: "Today we undertook a comprehensive programme. The team and the drivers found a good baseline for tomorrow's qualifying and Sunday's race."

Toyota

Ricardo Zonta - 2nd: "It was good to be back in the car after my break at last week's French Grand Prix, and that was a positive day for us. This track is very demanding for drivers with fast corners and it's enjoyable to drive here. As usual for the first day of a grand prix weekend, the track was very slippery to start with. But the car felt good both during the morning session and for the longer runs in the afternoon. We found some tyres that were quick and consistent over longer runs. This track changes a lot depending on the weather, but so far so good."

Ralf Schumacher - 5th: "We made it through our practice programme without problems today, so it was a good day. I did my normal work on tyres and set-ups for tomorrow and Sunday. We had a good test here a few weeks ago and I'm looking forward to the rest of the weekend. We had a reasonably positive result in Magny-Cours so our target is another strong points finish."

Jarno Trulli - 6th: "That was a normal Friday of practice. I had no problems with the car and I got through my programme of work on set-up and tyre comparisons. This will be a tough grand prix, but we'll do our best to come away with another positive result for the team. Overall I'm expecting this to be a similar weekend to Magny-Cours. That means that another strong points finish will be a good result."

Dieter Gass ­ Chief Race Engineer: "That was a very good session for us. We didn't have any problems with any of the cars and we got through all the work that we had planned. Ricardo put in some useful work on the tyres and that leaves us with a clear idea of which direction to take. Both race drivers made it through their programmes and we found some different solutions on the set-ups which proved quite successful. Overall we look to be in good shape for the weekend."

Renault

Fernando Alonso - 7th: "It was not too bad a day for me. We still have some improvements to make to the balance, but I am quite happy because we had no problems, the programme ran smoothly and the Michelin tyres seem very consistent. The conditions today were quite cold, which meant it was difficult to get the tyres up to temperature in the first few laps, and the wind made it harder to be confident in the high speed corners. There is still work to do, but I am quite encouraged with this beginning for the weekend."

Giancarlo Fisichella - 13th: "I have not had a very good day here in practice. The grip levels and car balance were completely different to what we experienced in testing here a few weeks ago, and it meant I was really struggling with understeer in the high-speed corners today. Also, I had a delay at the start of the session which meant I did not do as much running as I should have done. But the main thing for today is that we have a good direction for the tyre choice, which is the priority for Friday. We will work hard this evening and tomorrow to gain back the time we lost."

Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering: "Silverstone is a circuit where the 'fuel effect' - the time penalty for carrying a given quantity of fuel - is among the highest of the season. Therefore, to see such a big, closely-packed group on the timesheets, especially when the lap-time is around eighty seconds, is quite surprising, and undoubtedly an indication of some varying fuel loads along the pit-lane. At Renault, we ran our normal Friday programme, working for the race, selecting tyres and beginning to fine-tune the balance of the cars. Neither driver is yet happy, with both complaining of high speed understeer, but I think we have made a solid start to our race weekend."

Denis Chevrier, Head of Engine Operations: "Silverstone is a circuit which holds few surprises for us, and our programme was therefore focused on tyre choice for the chassis team, and on the engine side, we completed the final mapping for the new C specification engines we are running this weekend. The timesheets do not reflect our true level of performance, and we are confident that we have completed some good preparatory work for the race during this afternoon's session."

Red Bull

David Coulthard - 9th: "A pretty normal Friday really. We've been working through the programme, trying to find out where we are with the set-up of the car and tyres. We're not that far off the pace here compared to normal Fridays, but we don't know what fuel levels other people were running."

Christian Klien - 14th: "I only did a few laps in the first practice to check the car's balance. It was okay, but I was struggling with severe understeer, so we tried some different set-ups during the afternoon. That improved things, although there was still some understeer in the high-speed corners. I had a bit of a moment when I spun the car off the track in Turn six during the second practice, but as there was no damage, I was able to continue and complete the run. We definitely seem to be more competitive here."

Tonio Liuzzi - 8th: "In the first session we completed long runs to test the tyres and also for me to get to know the track. I've never driven a Formula one car here before, so I was concentrating on finding a good driving rhythm. The car seems more competitive here than on previous events. In the second session we tried a more aggressive set-up, which seemed to work much better and meant I could push a little bit more. Silverstone is one of the most difficult tracks in the Championship and you need to know the circuit well before you can go flat out. I think we could have been even faster towards the end of the second session, but I made a couple of mistakes."

Ferrari

Michael Schumacher - 10th: "Today, we did a lot of laps and pretty much finished our planned programme and now we have to study all the data to make our tyre choice. I have to say the long runs we did were not too bad, although that was also the case on Friday in Magny-Cours. We will have to wait and see how things develop and so I don't want to make any predictions for the rest of the weekend."

Rubens Barrichello - 15th: "We decided to use the new tyres only in the morning, which explains why our lap times did not look so good this afternoon. But I am quite happy with the balance of the car, although there is room for improvement, as I have some understeer. Apart from that I think we should be a little bit more competitive than we were last weekend in Magny-Cours."

Jean Todt: "The terrible events in London yesterday serve to remind us how lucky everyone is who works in Formula One. Here we are at Silverstone today, but it is hard to put yesterday's events out of our mind. They also show how unimportant is the bickering that occasionally takes place in our own little world when compared to tragedies like this. As for what happened on the track, there is not much to say. We carried out the usual programme of finding the best set-up and comparing the two types of tyre at out disposal. It is too early to make any predictions. Now the ball is in the engineers' court: they must analyse the data from these two hours of practice, when ambient and track temperatures were rather low."

Ross Brawn: "We improved the balance of the car this afternoon, as it had not been too good this morning. Because we do not have much experience of the Bridgestone tyres we have here, we altered the way we carried out our tyre evaluation. This meant we tried the two types of tyre in parallel, and therefore we did not use any new tyres this afternoon. We can be happy with the times on the long runs, during which the tyre performance was consistent. We had a bit of graining initially, but that will not be the case on Sunday. Now we just have to decide which type of tyre to use for qualifying and the race."

BAR

Jenson Button - 11th: "It's been a reasonably good first day's running and I'm pleased that everything has gone according to plan. We completed the full programme of set-up work and tyre comparisons, which means that we have some good data to look at where we stand. Obviously we have some room for improvement and we need to work on our pace, but the car is feeling pretty good and I'm really looking forward to the rest of the weekend. There has been a pretty big crowd here already today so I can't wait to see the grandstands packed for qualifying and the race. It should be a great weekend for the fans!"

Takuma Sato - 19th: "Today has been a difficult start to the weekend on my side. I struggled with low grip - especially with the front end of the car. In fact, it was very surprising to me to have such little grip and I struggled a lot during the day because of this. In the end, I had an electrical problem and because I was then stuck in the pits I was unable to complete any tyre testing. We need to find out what caused the balance problems now and I hope for better things tomorrow."

Gil De Ferran, Sporting Director: "It has been a mixed day for us today. On Jenson's car we had a very productive day, we completed our tyre evaluation and he seems fairly happy with the car. Speed-wise, Jenson did some quite competitive long runs which make us positive for the weekend. On the other hand, we unfortunately had a disrupted second session on Taku's car when an electrical problem stopped his day early, making it difficult to draw definite conclusions."

Shuhei Nakamoto, Engineering Director, Honda Racing Development: "It was a shame to lose the last 20 minutes of running on Taku's car, but overall we had a solid start to the weekend, with both engines performing well."

Williams

Mark Webber - 12th: "We had a pretty tough day and went through an intensive programme trying to find a reasonable balance for this track, while taking into consideration all the information we collected in Magny-Cours last week. We are setting ourselves a target which is achievable, in terms of improvement. We are still ticking a lot of boxes and trying to see how we can make our performance better. We are nowhere near where we want to be at the moment but I am confident we'll take some good decisions tonight."

Nick Heidfeld - 18th: "The morning session was very difficult as lap times indicate. I had poor levels of grip, as it takes some time for the tyre to heat up. We made a few changes both before and during the second session which seemed to improve the car. We have tried a lot of things around today which means we'll have a lot of data to go through this evening to decide what to do tomorrow."

Sam Michael (Technical Director): "We have been struggling with grip this morning, but we are starting to get some direction now. We still have a lot of work to do. We will look at the data tonight and see what decisions we will take for tomorrow."

Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director): "After the difficult weekend we had in Magny-Cours, today's sessions were dominated by an intensive set-up programme. No doubt we could have benefited from a test between these two Grands Prix. Now the challenge will be to improve the set-up for Saturday with the data we have collected today. There were no problems on the engine side."

Sauber

Jacques Villeneuve - 17th: "When I spun in Turn 6 I had just come out of the pits on cold tyres and was driving really slowly, just checking what was behind me. It was like being on dry tyres in the wet every time we came out of the pits because it is too cold to generate good tyre temperatures. I wasn't happy at all with the balance today. I had understeer everywhere except Copse, where I had oversteer. Then I hit something on the track and put a dent in the front suspension and damaged the aerodynamics a little, and we were not able to get that fixed completely. We will have some new parts tomorrow and I'm sure we'll be more competitive."

Felipe Massa - 16th: "As usual, or so it seems lately, I got traffic on my lap on new tyres! Without that I could have done a low 1m 21s for sure. The car is very good on long runs and I'm very happy with it, so our situation is a lot better than it looks."

Willy Rampf (Technical Director): "Our positions today do not reflect our true level of performance. Felipe was held up by traffic on his run with new tyres, and we were unable to repair aerodynamic damage that Jacques experienced after hitting some debris because the spare components were in a truck that was delayed in traffic getting to the circuit. Some revised front wings have now arrived, so we will be in better shape tomorrow."

Jordan

Narain Karthikeyan - 23rd: "I had a useful day comparing different types of Bridgestone tyres. Now, we are going to analyse the information collected during the two sessions and make the right choice for the weekend. The grip of the circuit was pretty poor and green at the beginning but then it improved. Besides, I am generally satisfied with the balance of the car, so now we will concentrate on the race set-up."

Tiago Monteiro - 22nd: "It was quite a difficult Friday for me. We had a little problem on the engine in the first session and had to change it. Therefore I am going to start last on the grid on Sunday and consequently, we have to adapt our strategy. Car-wise, we have improved a lot from this morning and also because the track got better and better. I think we have a good set-up for the car and we are not too far from the teams in front of us and this is a big improvement since the last time we tested in Silverstone."

Robert Doornbos - 20th: "I had fun as it is always nice to drive on this very fast circuit, especially in the first part. Today went quite well even though I had some technical problem with the new EJ15B at the beginning of the second session, which cost me a little bit of time, and this is not good for me as I only have two hours on Friday. But in the end, we have found a good car balance and I was able to get a clear lap and pushed."

Adrian Burgess - Sporting Director: "It was a busy day for all of us here at our home race. Tiago had an engine change, which will obviously put him back after tomorrow's qualifying. However, he recovered fairly well and did a good job in the second session. Narain ran through all his Bridgestone tyre programmes in order to help us with our strategy. Robert experienced some technical problems with the new EJ15B car but he managed to get the tyre comparison we needed. We are fairly happy with the position we are in for tomorrow's qualifying."

Minardi

Christijan Albers - 21st: "I think we had a reasonable day today, even if the car is not yet perfect in terms of balance. We will be able to improve, though, as there is still a lot of potential to be exploited in the chassis. Our gearing was a little bit short this afternoon, possibly because the wind seems to have changed direction from this morning, but I'm confident we will address these issues and make further progress tomorrow."

Patrick Friesacher - 24th: "We lost some time this morning because of a transmission problem, which was then sorted out for the second session. The handling was not too bad, even if I was not able to 'feel' the car quite as I would have liked, but we'll continue to work on finding a good balance tomorrow."

Paul Stoddart, Team Principal: "Today saw both Minardi drivers put in solid performances in preparation for Sunday's British Grand Prix. Despite a few minor technical issues, particularly with Patrick's car, it's encouraging once again to see Minardi register a competitive performance against its nearest rivals."

Michelin

Pierre Dupasquier, Michelin motorsport director: "The track was quick this morning - but it was also very abrasive, partly as a result of being 'green' in the wake of yesterday's rain. Conditions improved as more rubber was laid down, however, and the circuit became much more stable by this afternoon. It is quite similar to Magny-Cours in some respects, because there tends not to be major evolutionary changes once things settle down.

"We have two 'primes' and two 'options' available for our partner teams this weekend and we have been able to accumulate plenty of valuable data. I'm not sure that today's times will be an exact reflection of tomorrow's grid, but irrespective of fuel loads it is a fact that a quick time at Silverstone requires a finely-honed aerodynamic balance, to cope with the high-speed directional changes, and good tyres."

Bridgestone

Hisao Suganuma, Bridgestone Motorsport Technical Manager: "As is normal on a Friday we had a green track this morning resulting in poor grip but track conditions have been improving as the day has progressed. We did see some graining in the first practice but that is mainly a result of the green track. Our teams were able to carry out their tyre comparisons today and Ferrari did a long run tyre comparison this afternoon which has shown both their specifications to be competitive. We'll be taking the teams' data this evening and once we have assessed the tyres and their wear rates, we'll be in a better position to advise our teams about their final tyre choice for the weekend."