Selected Quotes: Imola Qualifying

Alfonso de Orleans Bourbon (Racing Engineering Principal): "Neel [Jani] had a fire extinguisher go on him in the cockpit, so he couldn't do a good lap, and Borja [Garcia] spend the session learning the track because he couldn't do any laps this morning! They also both had brake problems, which didn't help. At least by the race we should have good cars."

Heikki Kovalainen (Arden): "I was a bit unlucky ­ on my first set of tyres I struggled with the yellows, and then on the second we stopped ­ it felt the same as running out of fuel, but maybe it was something else. Anyway, this was about the best I could get [in laptimes] ­ the set up was a little different to Nicolas, and we couldn't match him. We've just got to see what happens tomorrow."

Borja Garcia (Racing Engineering): "I only had two laps this morning, and I don't know the track at all, so that was a problem! In qualifying there was some understeer, we had no set up information, and I had a soft brake pedal. I can just hope to turn all the laps tomorrow into a good set up for Sunday."

Adam Carroll (Super Nova): "It was okay ­ I should have been a bit further up but I caught traffic and that was that. Looking at the data I was on for pole but I lost seven tenths behind someone, but then everyone else could probably have gone quicker too. We'll see for tomorrow ­ it could be worse."

Ernesto Viso (BCN): "I can't complain ­ we're one of the lucky teams to get time this morning, and I thought P1 was on for me but then I stopped without fuel. Tomorrow should still be okay ­ fifth isn't too bad."

Nelson Piquet Jr (Hitech Piquet): "I had a big problem this morning which really affected my whole day, and meant that my set-up for qualifying was not the best that it could have been. I am quite happy with the result because the other seven drivers ahead of me did not have problems during free practice this morning. For tomorrow I believe that the race will be better because it is a long race and now I have had the chance to test the car and see what I can improve on. I will try to do my best to improve on the position but you could look at it this way - if I finish in my grid position of eighth in tomorrow's race, I will be on pole for Sunday's race!"

David Price (DPR Principal): "Having no practice time meant that we were effectively running blind in qualifying as far as set up on the cars was concerned, and Olivier hadn't even seen the track before.  We had three sets of tyres to use, as we hadn't used any in practice, so we had three attempts at a quick lap but there just wasn't enough time to do what we wanted to.  With Olivier's stop to be weighed, and a seized wheel nut on Ryan's car during one of the tyre changes, we just ran out of time.  Bearing all that in mind, and considering his lack of track time, I have to say that Ryan didn't do too bad a job.

"Tomorrow's 37-lap race will be a considerable test for the technical reliability of the cars and the outcome is hard to predict.  Sunday's 17-lap race might give a fairer indication of where we all are ­ we shall have to wait and see."