Today's Selected Quotes - German GP

Ferrari

Michael Schumacher: "I did a lot of laps and I am happy with the work we have done today and with the balance of the car. It works well in both the wet and the dry, although we did not get enough running in the wet to finalise a wet weather setting. It's very difficult to find the right compromise to suit both the straights and the motodrom section. Our engine specification is the same as the one we used in the last race. I think qualifying will be very close and now I am looking forward to going up against our usual rivals for the front row."

Rubens Barrichello: "The day got off to a very good start. Then, when it began to rain I was unable to continue improving the set up, but at least we picked up some useful data for wet conditions. I am sure our car is well suited to this track which means we will be in a strong position tomorrow in qualifying and on Sunday in the race. The track is very dirty and my visor is covered in debris, but despite this we are going much quicker than last year."

Jean Todt: "This Friday was slightly different to usual in that we ran in the dry for the first hour and then in the wet for the start of the second part of the session. This change in conditions gave us the possibility to gather useful information, given that the weather forecast predicts changeable weather for the next two days. Our cars are going well and we are satisfied with what we have achieved today. We think that we can fight for front row positions tomorrow."

Jordan

Heinz-Harald Frentzen: "I am happy with the performance today and I would say that we have made a good step forward as a result of the work done in testing at Silverstone last week. The changeable weather meant we ran on both a dry and wet track and it is encouraging to see the car felt good in both conditions. I think the car is very competitive on this track and I am looking forward to tomorrow. We were competitive here last year and it is good that we have maintained the quality of the car on high speed tracks."

Jarno Trulli: "The new aerodynamic package on the car feels very good and overall I feel that the car is competitive. I had a problem in the morning with the hydrualics on my car. After that, the mechanics had a lot of work to do as they had to strip the rear of the car and take the gearbox off to fix the problem. But they worked really hard and managed to get me out fifteen minutes into the session. Unfortunately the track was wet and it was very difficult to feel the car in those conditions. But, even so, I could tell that we have the potential to do very well. Despite the limited number of laps, we did enough to understand which direction to take on the set-up when practice begins again tomorrow."

McLaren

Mika Hakkinen: "The sessions were made interesting by the changing weather. Like most drivers I prefer to drive the car in the dry, but today I felt comfortable in both conditions and we seemed pretty competitive no matter what. We have a lot of supporters here in Germany and its good to see the silver and black caps all around the track."

David Coulthard: "We went through a lot of work today and even though there have been no changes made to the track the surface is never the same as the year before. I'm happy with the progress we made with the car."

Ron Dennis: "A reasonable constructive day where we experienced no mechanical problems. Our performance in the afternoon, in both the wet and dry conditions, seem to indicate that we made a good step forward from this morning. Taking into account the weather and the normal influence of tyres and fuel loads we seem to be in good shape for the weekend."

Norbert Haug: "Today's practice took place in difficult conditions with the track changing from dirty but dry to wet and then dry again. Under these circumstances its difficult to predict who will be best prepared for the race."

BAR

Ricardo Zonta: "It's been a good day. We ran lots of laps and tried many things. We also had a chance to try both wet and dry set-ups and the car was quite fast. I'm happy with today's work and although you never know what the others are doing, I think we're in good shape for tomorrow."

Jacques Villeneuve: "We didn't do many laps in the morning as we had a problem with one front of the wishbones. We just did a few laps at the end and the car was really good - it was quick. We made some changes for the afternoon; it rained, but the car seemed OK in the wet. As soon as it dried we were pretty competitive right away."

Takefumi Hosaka, Managing Director, Honda R&D: "Overall we have had a good day, but we would have wished to be a little closer to the top teams than we are. This circuit is very tough on engines because of the length of the straights and the stop-and-go layout. We must be careful with our performance throughout the weekend, but we had no problems with the engine today."

Benetton

Giancarlo Fisichella: "We have achieved a good balance today and did a good work with the dry set-up. In the second session when the track was wet we tried the wrong downforce level so I came in then the track started to dry so we didn't get much wet work done. The track is quite slippery though so we need to find more grip."

Alexander Wurz: "This morning the car was very nervous and then in the second session we made some improvements with the chassis balance. We learnt a bit about wet set-up in the beginning of the afternoon then as it dried out I did a long run on high fuel and old tyres, and this is reflected in the results. We still need to work on improving the rear end though."

Pat Symonds, Technical Director: "It was quite difficult today to get all our homework done with the rain occurred in the middle of practice. In spite of this we have had a good day and have learnt a lot about the car. We have a reasonable balance but still some work to do and I think we can be quite competitive here."

Sauber

Mika Salo: "This morning my car had too much oversteer and felt nervous over the bumps. We tried a lot of different things and improved it, but there's still a bit to do where the bumps are concerned. The car still doesn't feel comfortable over them. The wet weather didn't help that programme, but it did give us a chance to hone our wet set-up, which felt good. That will help if the weather is as bad as expected tomorrow."

Pedro Diniz: "We had a good day and were able to test quite a lot of things. We found several things which helped. I ran all day in race trim, which explains my times, and the car was good. We just need to work a little on the traction. We also got some running in the wet, and the set-up for that was good too."

Peter Sauber: "Generally our preparation for Hockenheim has been good. The weather forecast for tomorrow isn't favourable, so it was good to get some running in the wet today, when we were able to confirm that our set-up is competitive."

Prost

Nick Heidfeld: "I am quite satisfied with today's practice. In the first session, I thought I had an engine problem, but it was just over-filled with oil. Unfortunately, we were not able to exploit the entire practice and I was not entirely happy with the set-up. But this afternoon, the changes we made brought some real improvements. I think we are still not where we should be, but we know in which direction we will work tomorrow morning. "

Jean Alesi: "I found the car difficult to drive today. So, we are going to concentrate on a different set-up tomorrow morning. For us, it would be very important to be among the top ten. That is our objective and we are going to do our best to achieve it. "

Alain Prost: "This circuit offers a very particular compromise between the fast sections demanding little downforce and the curves which need very much less. The drivers therefore complain, as is certainly the same in all the teams, of a certain instability under braking and of average traction. One can see that the times are particularly close among the midfield runners and perhaps that is even more notable on this kind of circuit. Today, there are ten cars within a second. So, our times are encouraging for the moment and we will strive to do the same again tomorrow. "

Arrows

Pedro de la Rosa: "Both sessions were very good for me. We tried many different things with the car, as especially on this track it's important to play with the aerodynamic set-up. We also managed to do some work with a wet set-up and tyres and we expect to improve the car over the chicanes overnight and especially on the last sector where we are losing too much time".

Jos Verstappen: "It wasn't a very good day for me as we had a lot of problems. The brakes weren't very good so we changed them in between practice sessions as the car wasn't handling very well. It then started to rain, but generally the car was good and we were experimenting with different wings to find the best one. I went back out as the track dried but I was unable to complete a run as there was a gearbox oil leak. I didn't manage to do many laps in the dry, but hopefully tomorrow will be better".

Williams

Ralf Schumacher: "The set-up of the car is pretty good but there's still quite a lot of room for improvement. The engine change - which we decided to make between the two sessions â€" didn't help, as I lost 25 minutes of track time."

Jenson Button: "I think we have learned something today, both in the dry and in the wet, which was very useful. I think that our position doesn't really reflect how fast we are. Hopefully tomorrow I will get some more laps in the dry and learn the circuit a bit more. You reach very high speeds on this track, but you don't realise how fast you are until you brake and you actually feel the G-force. The braking distance, then, is obviously a lot longer here than on most of the other tracks."

Patrick Head: "We had a day working on race set-up and evaluating brake wear and tomorrow will be concentrating more on grid positions. The rain added an interesting interruption to our programme."

Dr Mario Theissen, BMW Motorsport Director: "After the first free practice hour we found a minor leak in a cylinder head cover and we decided to change the engine as a precaution."

Jaguar

Johnny Herbert: "It was a bit of strange day, particularly with the weather conditions, dry in the morning, wet for most of the afternoon. I concentrated on set-up, making improvements to the handling for the slow stadium section. The car tends to move around quite a bit on the brakes because you run so little downforce here because of the fast straights. Overall, though, I'm fairly content - there is definitely more time to be found in the car."

Eddie Irvine: "The big issue here as always is making the car work well over the kerbs and improving the stability under braking. Some of the programme we had mapped out was interrupted by the rain but I guess that's the same for everybody. Though the weather conditions didn't allow us to get a clear picture, the early indications are that the new engine is an improvement. I guess we'll know more tomorrow."

Gary Anderson: "We had a bit of a problem on set-up initially - it was an aero miscalculation. We put a lot more wing on than we should have done. But we weren't far out in the end. We just tried running with fuel and trying to do some race testing. We had to change Johnny's engine between the two sessions, but he's still using a Project One for the time being. Johnny also had a suspected brake caliper problem at the end of the second session. Because of the aero problem, we don't know enough about the new engine yet, so we'll have to see tomorrow. But it's got more power - it's as simple as that."

Minardi

Marc Gene: "Although we did not work too much on the car set-up today, I believe we are moving in the right direction. Toward the end of the second session, when the track was not yet completely dry, I pushed harder to put in a better timed lap and suddenly I lost control of my car in a curve. I am disappointed to have lost twenty-five minutes that could be very helpful to the set-up. Basically I feel happy with my car's behaviour and I am sure that tomorrow we can still improve."

Gaston Mazzacane: "Unfortunately, during this morning's free practice session I wasted almost thirty minutes in the garage to fix a minor problem to one of the rear shock absorbers. In the second session, on the wet track, I did not manage to achieve any good timed lap because I made a mistake under braking at the hairpin and, as a result I locked the wheels and finished out. It has been a difficult and disappointing day I did not exploit as much as I could because I completed a very poor number of timed laps."