Monaco Saturday quotes: Toyota

"At one stage in Q2 I was going even quicker when I was blocked by several cars in the middle of the lap, but we still made it through to Session 3. Then at the very end I was on the second of a two-lap run when I saw a yellow flag and the car in the middle of the track so I stopped my lap.

"In the end I'm happy with where I am as well as our race strategy. It is obviously difficult to judge a new car on this kind of circuit but first we have a tough Sunday ahead and I just hope we can run a good race tomorrow."

Ralf Schumacher - 11th: "Our times were not impressive this morning because we have spent the whole weekend doing race set-up work so we were confident we could pick up the pace in qualifying.

"The traffic was not as bad as we feared going into the sessions with the 2006 qualifying rules so the team did well to find some relatively clear laps. So it's a reasonable job so far and with the race strategy that we have chosen and the tyres that we have, we should be strong tomorrow.

"It is a very long race and because you have to be 100 per cent concentrated all the time it certainly feels like it. But the challenge is to push to the limit for 78 laps without going over it."

Pascal Vasselon - Senior General Manager Chassis: "We were expecting a difficult morning because we decided to use the session to prepare for the race. So of course we were far back on the time sheets, but there were good reasons for that.

"We were effectively expecting to catch up this afternoon and that is what we did. As it turned out, it was less difficult than we expected to find clear laps. We were prepared to face any kind of situation and it went according to plan. Jarno's position is satisfying but he was blocked by yellow flags on his final lap while other drivers could continue their fast laps.

"It was a pity that Ralf just missed out on Session 3 but he is still in a decent position to do well in the race. We are happy with our tyre choice and now we have to look for a good result tomorrow."