Saturday October 30th, 1999

Ferrari

Michael Schumacher: "I am very happy to be on pole today. This is further confirmation of the high performance level of our car at the moment. We made some progress this morning and improved even more this afternoon. Now we have to look at what is the best way to help Eddie for tomorrow, because we are working as a team. Eddie can be sure he will have everything available. The best thing I can do to help him and the team is to win the race and the constructors' championship for Ferrari."

Eddie Irvine: "Just before my accident, we had made a major change to the front end of the car which was a big improvement. But it made the car more nervous and I just lost control of the back end which is why I crashed. My neck might be a bit stiff but it's not going to be a problem tomorrow. Being on the third row is not ideal but it is by no means a disaster. At least I am on the clean side of the track. It was useful having to use the spare car as we learned something from it which we can use tomorrow which will improve the car."

Jean Todt: "We wanted and expected to get Michael onto the front row with the best time and to have Eddie in the top four. We ended up with pole for Michael and fifth place for Eddie; almost what we aimed for and not bad for the race. Now we are concentrating on tomorrow when both championships will be decided. Our cars are working well and I think that so far we have done everything we set out to do. Eddie will use chassis number 194 as his race car tomorrow and chassis number 190 as his spare."

McLaren

Mika Hakkinen: "Obviously I am disappointed that I am not on pole, especially as I think I could have gone quicker on my last lap. My incident at the final chicane involving Jean Alesi was unfortunate, but things like that happen and I don't think it was anybody's fault. As for the car we have improved all the way through practice and qualifying and it is feeling good, it is particularly consistent which I think will be really good for us in the race tomorrow."

David Coulthard: "All things considered I am reasonably happy with qualifying and definitely I will be in better shape in the race. I am excited to see what will happen tomorrow afternoon, because although qualifying has finished this way, it doesn't mean that we will be in the same order when we come out of the first corner. Hopefully we will be reliable and hopefully we will get the result that we are focusing on."

Ron Dennis: "Mika was unlucky to lose the opportunity to improve his times on both his third and last run. Whilst Irvine's accident was one of those things, the incident at the chicane was a little more difficult to accept. That said we are in good shape for the race and our grid positions should allow us a real opportunity to retain our World Championships."

Norbert Haug: "Tomorrow, if we have the same result, then we will be where we want to be."

Jordan

Heinz-Harald Frentzen: "I am pleased with fourth place, and would like to thank Mugen-Honda who gave us a really strong engine for qualifying. Starting from the second row puts us in a good position to be able to finish on the podium. I do not want to be involved in the Championship fight; I just want to finish as high up as I can. David Coulthard is my contender in this race and I will be aiming to win as many points as possible. It should be very exciting."

Damon Hill: "I am disappointed with my result. I would have liked to have been higher up in my last qualifying session and cannot put my finger on why I was not faster. I hope to have a better race."

Prost

Olivier Panis: "I am very happy with our qualifying session. We have done a lot of work since yesterday and all the team - drivers, engineers and mechanics - have maintained the necessary motivation for a good race weekend. I thank everyone very sincerely. The Peugeot team has done a great job in giving us such a competitive engine which gave us much in this qualifying session. We have waited a long time to have a result like this with both cars at the same time and I am very happy about this even if it is our final Grand Prix together. The race is for tomorrow and I believe we have a very good chance to do finish the 1999 season on a high note."

Jarno Trulli: "This morning, we worked well on the car and found a good balance. I felt very confident for this afternoon - qualifying session. Unfortunately, I had various problems including a dirty track and traffic. Anyway, the car was well-balanced and the EV7 engine was competitive and thanks to both of these factors I had a chance to secure a good grid position. Bravo - and thanks to everyone in the team. Tomorrow, the race will be interesting as we start from positions which promise to give us a chance of scoring some points."

Alain Prost: "We consider this to be our best result this year, particularly as it has been achieved in normal conditions. The work done since yesterday has produced steady progress and both drivers are happy with the behaviour of their cars. The Peugeot Evolution EV7 has also been a plus point in giving us the performance to trim the 10ths of seconds necessary to take a good position on the grid, as the lap-times are so close. I am very satisfied with the behaviour of the whole team and hope, for everyone, but especially the drivers, that we have a good race result tomorrow. It is very important to finish the season and our adventure together successfully. We are all totally motivated for this final race."

Stewart

Johnny Herbert: "I thought a spot in the top six was within reach, but we didn't seem to be able to find as much improvement from this morning as some of our rivals. In some cases that was half a second. I was struggling for grip in the low speed corners which is where I lost time. From a team perspective, it's important that I'm ahead of Ralf Schumacher given the Championship points standings. I have been happy with the way the car has worked in race trim so it's going to be interesting tomorrow. We could have done without the two Prosts finishing ahead of us but all credit to them."

Rubens Barrichello: "I did not get one clear run during the whole session. On my first run I caught yellow flags after Ralf Schumacher went off. On my second the car developed a water leak and I had to go out in the spare car which was just not working anywhere near as well. When I went back out for my final run in the race car. I had to slow because of Alesi and Hakkinen spinning in front of me on my last flying lap. With the time I did this morning I was confident of a time around 1:39.00 which is where we thought we should have been all weekend. I really wanted to make my last qualifying session with the Stewart-Ford team a special one. I am upset for the whole team that things didn't go my way today."

Paul Stewart, Stewart-Ford Chief Operating Officer: "Rubens wasn't able to get any flow going during the session given the problems he had. Johnny did a good job in finding time as the session progressed. We still have a chance of scoring points from this race – which was our objective this weekend."

Tyrone Johnson, Technical Manager, Ford Racing Research and Vehicle Technology: "From a Championship perspective the good news is that Johnny qualified in front of Ralf Schumacher's Williams. However we had hoped to have both cars in the top six for the final race of 1999. Fresh Series 3 engines will be fitted overnight and everybody in the Stewart-Ford team will be hoping that we can maintain our fourth place in the 1999 Constructors' Championship."

Williams

Ralf Schumacher: "In my first run of qualifying, I pushed too hard, came too hard over the kerbs and crashed into the barrier. With the T-car I experienced some set-up problems with the second set of tyres but we could sort this out. In the last run I could manage to achieve the ninth place, in spite of being slowed down by the yellow flag. It's a pity, because I am sure that with the race car I could have achieved a better position on the grid, probably around sixth place. Anyway, we are now preparing everything for tomorrow's race and I feel fairly confident that we will be able to finish in the points."

Alex Zanardi "I am quite happy, as it was a fairly good session. We were steadily improving but at the end of the session, whilst trying to look for some even better adjustments, I made a choice which turned out to be the wrong one. So we couldn't set a good time right when we needed to and everybody else was improving. Grab all, lose all."

Patrick Head, Technical Director: "This was a pretty disappointing qualifying session for Ralf; he made a mistake on a very fast lap in his race car so unfortunately he had to go in the T-car which wasn't really quite as good and well balanced. In spite of this he did a very good job in his last lap and got himself into the top ten. Alex had no real problems but just basically could not achieve a better position."

BAR

Jacques Villeneuve: "We had to fight hard today. I wasn't able to do any work with new tyres this morning. Then in qualifying I got yellow flags and traffic on my first and second runs, so I could only really go for it on my last two, and I think we reached the limit of the car. We're only a tenth of a second behind sixth place, but it's frustrating that a tenth can make five positions' difference, and this will have a big influence on the race because it’s going to be difficult to overtake. I think we'll be competitive though. As far as the championship goes, it should be interesting."

Ricardo Zonta: "This is quite a difficult circuit to set up the car. We improved it a lot from this morning but not enough to make the times we wanted. I lost my first set of tyres through traffic and got a yellow flag on my last. Our car is good here though and I think it should be possible to have a good race on Sunday."

Craig Pollock, Chairman & CEO: "After such an intense qualifying session, it is nice to see so many cars separated only by one tenth of a second, so we cannot be too disappointed with our qualifying positions. Both the cars have been reliable today and we could have a good chance for results in the race."

Adrian Reynard, Vice Chairman: "We had an inboard CV joint failure on the driveshaft on Jacques' car this morning. We identified the problem and corrected it, but unfortunately we lost the second part of the free practice session in the process. In qualifying it was good to see the cars running reliably and we feel that we can be strong in the race."