29/07/2006
NEWS STORY
Michael Schumacher will start his home grand from the front row of the grid tomorrow afternoon after qualifying in second place behind McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen. Although the Bridgestone shod Ferrari driver's time of 1m14.205s sees him line up second on the grid, the seven time world champion was actually the fastest man on track today with a 1m13.778 in the second part of qualifying. Schumacher's teammate Felipe Massa was fractionally slower with a time of 1m14.569, putting him third on the grid. With main title rival Fernando Alonso in seventh, Sunday's 67-lap race is set to be a potential turning point in the championship. Meanwhile, Panasonic Toyota Racing's Ralf Schumacher also had a strong qualifying run in front of his home crowd, qualifying eighth fastest. However, his qualifying was interrupted by an incident with another driver. Fellow Toyota driver Jarno Trulli was 13th but he will have a ten place grid penalty for an engine change which took place earlier in the day. Neither WilliamsF1 driver made it into the top ten shoot-out while the MF1 Racing and Super Aguri drivers all went out in the first qualifying session.
Hisao Suganuma, Technical Manager - Bridgestone Motorsport: By the third free practice session this morning most of the teams had reached their final tyre choice decisions but some teams still felt they needed to do comparison runs to confirm their decisions. Despite last night's rain, track conditions were not bad this morning and both hard and soft specifications will be used in the race. In qualifying we were disappointed that Ferrari just missed out on pole but even so the two Ferraris will start from second and third on the grid, which has given them a good chance for the race. We expect the Bridgestone tyres will perform well even if we are faced with very hot conditions tomorrow afternoon. Ralf Schumacher put on a good performance this afternoon but he had an incident with another car during qualifying and without that we think he could have qualified further up the grid. Nevertheless he looks a strong contender for the race. The two WilliamsF1 drivers will start from the middle of the grid but we think they too could be strong tomorrow and unfortunately for Jarno Trulli, he has a tough race ahead after his engine change penalty.
Ross Brawn, Technical Director – Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro: Obviously we were hoping for pole position but I think today went fairly well. The drivers are second and third so we shall choose our strategy carefully for the race. The car is quick car, the Bridgestone tyres good and the track is getting better all the time so I am reasonably optimistic we can have a good race.
To check out our Hockenheim qualifying gallery, click here