Jordan

Damon Hill: "That was fun! I enjoyed myself and am delighted to finish the day in first place. The team has done a great job to develop the car and now I feel I am able to really fight, something I have missed for most of this season. When the car feels good you can really start to dig deeper ? although I went off so many times, I wondered whether I should be taking up a new career as a rally driver! The reason I went off was that we had not found the right set up, but obviously we fixed it by the end of the session. If I can keep this balance tomorrow we should do well."

Heinz-Harald Frentzen: "My position today does not reflect where we should be but I feel confident that tomorrow we will put things right. I was not able to find the right set up today and had to finish running early because of a gear box problem. We will work on finding a good set up and lap time tomorrow."

McLaren

Mika Hakkinen: "It was a good practice session. I am not yet one hundred percent pleased, but we made good progress as we worked on the balance and handling of the car and I am feeling very positive about qualifying."

David Coulthard: "I am happy with the progress we made today, especially as we picked up grip throughout both sessions. I am looking forward to tomorrow.:

Ron Dennis: "A very productive practice which saw both drivers improving their times through their own, and their engineers' efforts. Today's times, as always, are reflective of varying fuel loads and tyre degradation. Our main competition remains unchanged."

Norbert Haug: "The A1 Ring is a circuit where weight is a crucial factor. Therefore we have to wait and see what the grid order will be tomorrow. I do not expect our main opposition, Ferrari, to be in ninth position, qualifying will demonstrate where everybody really stands."

BAR

Ricardo Zonta: "The work we did at our last test at Monza helped us a lot. My car felt very good today. It was consistent in the corners which meant I was able to push. Jacques and I are now running with the same differential - at Silverstone I still had the older spec on and I think this gave Jacques a second's advantage over me in qualifying. Now we're the same and I think the lap times show this. I still have quite a bit of understeer in the fast corners but we're gradually improving this, and I think we can be even quicker."

Jacques Villeneuve: "We worked well on set-ups today, but I don't personally think this is a difficult circuit to set the car up for – you brake, you turn and you accelerate - so it's easy to get the right set-up. The track seemed good today, quite clean with no rubber and the grip was pretty good by the end of the session. The A1-Ring has always been good to me in the past, so I feel positive coming here. Although today's performance is encouraging, it’s only Friday, but we're going to give it our best shot Saturday and hope for a top six (points)position."

Craig Pollock, Managing Director: "I think the team did a great job today, especially Ricardo who put in a wonderful performance. Jacques' best chance of a quick lap was spoiled by the yellow flags coming out, but we’re quite pleased with fourth and eighth positions.

Robert Synge, Team Manager: "Both our drivers have been winners at this circuit and, for Ricardo particularly, that gives him added confidence for his first time here in F1. We're very pleased with his performance. We have incorporated some important new developments which we tested last week in Monza into the car's suspension, and we seem to have found the way to extract more of the car's real potential. This is the first of a series of developments – both suspension and aerodynamic – that we plan to introduce in the next few races."

Sauber

Jean Alesi: "This morning was very difficult for me. I was a spectator! I did only seven laps before I encountered a problem with a rear wheelnut during a routine wheel change. In the end, the team had to change the whole rear upright, so I lost the session. This afternoon was much better. I could attack again and the car was working very well."

Williams

Ralf Schumacher: "This first day here in Zeltweg was not so bad. I am quite happy with the car so far, although in today's free practice session I missed a little bit of grip both front and rear. I hope that we can improve that by changing the set-up of the car for tomorrow's qualifying and I am confident that the team will do a good job here in Speilberg. In fact, we have some brand new parts fitted on the car with regards to the aerodynamics that allow more downforce to the car which is also much more stable. I hope that for tomorrow's qualifying we can achieve a better position and then we will look forward to the race."

Alex Zanardi: "To be honest, I am reasonably satisfied with my performance today, although we improved a little. Anyway, after looking at Ralf's result, I expect my car to be much better tomorrow, when it will be fitted with the same updated configuration. I must deeply thank the Team for the big effort, if the aerodynamic aspect has effectively improved that much. I hope I am going to be that quick too, tomorrow, and get the benefits of this step forward."

Patrick Head, Technical Director: "Even if we are still in very early days, Ralf's performance is quite encouraging. In fact he is driving the car in a different specification that we decided to bring forward to this Grand Prix although it was originally planned to be run first at next weeks Monza test. Alex's car will be converted to that specification this evening."

Ferrari

Jean Todt: "Today we worked on finding the right set up for the race. Both drivers used only one set of tyres each. We are happy with the overall performance of the car. Mika lost control of the car, spinning off into the gravel. He was unable to continue and therefore missed the last part of the afternoon session. But anyway, he did a good job. I think it is looking good for tomorrow."

Eddie Irvine: "This was a usual Friday, doing a lot of laps on old tyres and with a heavy fuel load, so I am not bothered about my time from today. The car is pretty much the way it should be. There are a few minor improvements we can try tomorrow morning. We made a good step forward before my last two runs this afternoon, but traffic and old tyres meant we did not see the difference on the watch. Tyre choice will be straightforward here. I like this circuit and it is fun to drive."

Mika Salo: "The morning session went very well. We made a lot of changes to the car and improved it a lot. This afternoon, we continued to improve and also did some pit stop practices which was useful as everything is new to me here. Then unfortunately, I made a small mistake and lost control of the car in a high speed corner. I was trying something different for the first time. It was part of the learning process Unfortunately, it cost me forty minutes of practice time. But generally, I am comfortable with the car now and I think I can have a very good weekend here. There are still a few changes I want to try on the car tomorrow morning, which should make it better for qualifying."

Stewart

Rubens Barrichello: "We made a big change to the car after the first session which cost me a bit of track time during the second hour but we still managed to get through quite a lot of set-up work. I'm not totally comfortable with the way the car feels just yet. I would like to be able to attack it a bit more. I think top six is a realistic target if its dry but if we have any more rain like yesterday's torrential downpour I'm sure I can sneak into the top four. Based on today's times it looks like there will be quite a tight battle for the top 10 positions."

Johnny Herbert: "It was quite dirty to start with which is always the case at the A1-Ring. As the day wore on it stabilised and there was a lot more grip towards the end of the second session. If there is no more rain before qualifying I think we are in pretty good shape. We found a nice balance at the end of the second session. I felt much more at home in the car. We managed to reduce the understeer I experienced this morning but there is still some way to go. The new exhaust system we have fitted on the cars has made the engine run smoother and has improved the driveability."

Paul Stewart, Chief Operating Officer: "Both drivers went through comprehensive set-up changes and the times are very close at the top. It's re-assuring that all the modifications we ran at the Monza test proved reliable in their first race weekend outing today."

Martin Whitaker, Director, Ford Racing, Europe: "Both Rubens and Johnny used the Series 2 engines today and we experienced no problems. However for the rest of the weekend both cars will be fitted with the new Series 3 engine which will improve top end performance and provide a wider spread of power."

Minardi

Luca Badoer: "It is a great satisfaction to see that such aerodynamic modifications work really well. Today we managed to optimise the car, doing a good job in terms of set-up. All the work done turned out a fine performance. Furthermore, this proves, that a competitive car leads to good results."

Marc Gene: "This session turned out to be very exciting. All the merit goes to the Team who worked very hard in this period. Today I did my job as I do everyday, but the car was a large improvement with the new aerodynamics which I find very efficient. Also Ford has made very good modifications with the new evolution engine. At the end, the job that everybody did led us to be so competitive, we are only nine tenths from pole!"

Prost

Jarno Trulli: "I drove in both sessions with plenty of fuel. My car lacked grip, specially in the quick curves. We have tried different set-ups in order to use the tyres in the correct way on this particular track, well-known for its low level of grip."

Olivier Panis: "The engine problem which I had on my car caused me to lose the benefit of the first session. We changed the engine for the afternoon and the work done was fruitful. The balance of my car is good, but to be quicker, we need to find more grip. Our analysis of the day has made several things clear. In the present circumstances, with so much fuel, it is difficult to go faster."

Vincent Gaillardot: "We have spent the two sessions today working to prepare for the race with heavy fuel loads on both cars. We have tested different ideas in relation to the behaviour of the tyres which seem, here, to wear very little."