Saturday March 30th, 2002

Italian Jarno Trulli claimed his Renault team deserved a better result in Saturday's qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix after their strongest performance of the season so far.

Trulli and teammate Jenson Button completed an extraordinary day for the French squad, finishing in sixth and seventh places respectively around half a second off Juan Pablo Montoya's pole position time.

Trulli, who is yet to score a point this year, was delighted with the team's performance, but said they could have done even better.

"It's great for the whole team," said Trulli. "I must admit that I think we deserved more, but we had traffic on every run. We have been competitive throughout the weekend, as our split-times show, but I didn't manage to put it all together for a single lap during qualifying.

"Most of all, I want to thank the whole team for giving me a very good car, which is getting better and better with every race."

Trulli was less than a tenth of a second slower than the two McLaren drivers, and a fraction faster than teammate Button, who was also happy with his day: "I'm pleased to be so close to the McLarens, and to be running so competitively."

Published at 19:44:25 GMT