Mixed fortunes at Benetton
Benetton's form slumped in qualifying at Imola. Just two weeks after Giancarlo Fisichella's impressive second place in Brazil, the Italian driver could only manage 19th on the grid for his home race, eight places behind team mate Alex Wurz
The team blamed his lack of pace on tyre choice.
'We made a mistake in choosing the medium tyres for Giancarlo and we have paid for it,' said team boss Flavio Briatore.
'I am extremely disappointed. We made the wrong choice with the tyres and we also struggled with the set-up,' said Fisichella.
'I had a mixture of understeer and oversteer so the car was very difficult to drive.'
Wurz was relatively pleased with 11th however.
'On my last lap I think I really got the maximum out of the car,' he said, 'so on the whole I am pleased with my qualifying position. We have done some good work on the race set-up so maybe we can score some points tomorrow, but it will be tough.'
Technical director Pat Symonds described it as: 'a very good effort by Alex and his crew and a circuit that we didn't fully get to grips with.'
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