Melbourne, Saturday 8th March The Ferrari's of Michael Schumacher (1m 31.472s) and Eddie Irvine (1m 31.881s) finished third and fifth respectively in today's qualifying session. Irvine set his time on his last run after the red-flagged session was re-started, while Schumacher set his time on his second run. The German driver completed 10 laps while the Irishman did 12. The ambient temperature during the session was 24 degrees and the track temperature was 34 degerees. Jean Todt "I am amazed at Villeneuve's time. It was probably down to different choices of soft or hard tyre and a perfect set-up on the car. It will be interesting to know what the other teams used. Third and fifth places on the grid for Michael and Eddie is a good position to be in. However, looking at the gap between Villeneubve and the rest, finding the right race strategy will be very important." Michael Schumacher "I am quite happy. Third place is a little bit better than I expected. It is quite close between us and McLaren so I am looking forward to a good race tomorrow. However, looking at the gap between the two Wiliams, almost two seconds a lap, I will expect Villeneuve to disappear into the distance tomorrow and I will be fighting for a place on the podium. On the last lap I stopped on the track when I ran out of fuel." Eddie Irvine "I was struggling on my first two runs and it felt as though I was driving on ice. Then I switched to Michael's settings and found a lot more grip. On my first run with those settings I made a few mistakes, then on my final run I did not push too hard and it all came together a bit better. I am still not sure why I had no grip at first, but I am happy to be fifth ad, up until that point I had been struggling."
Ferrari Press Release
