Warm Up

Weather: Sunshine

Nicola Larini (Alfa Romeo) 1st: "I was running on full fuel tanks so the
time was good. But I have a problem with the gearchange, it seems to be
going up a couple of gears every time I shift."

Manuel Reuter (Opel) 2nd: "I've no problems with the car at all but my
back is really hurting me now. I'm going to need pain killing injections
before the race."

Alessandro Nannini (Alfa Romeo) 4th: "The car is well balanced but I
hope that my tyres will stay in good shape. It could be hard holding off
the Mercedes late in the race as their top speed is better than ours."

Bernd Schneider (Mercedes) 5th: "We've got the 50kgs of extra weight
under control and the balance of the car is good. I'm expecting great
results this afternoon."

Michael Bartels (Alfa Romeo) 6th: "It is much better this morning. We've
discovered. that the Step
1 car that we are now using doesn't work so well on the new compound Michelin tyres so we've
gone back to the old ones. We've had to change the springs and
suspension a bit but I'm quite confident for the race now."

JJ Lehto (Opel) 8th: "We changed the differential overnight and it has
transformed the car. I ran with full fuel tanks so my time was really
pleasing. I'm looking forward to the race now."

Dario Franchitti (Mercedes) 10th: "There was an engine problem so I
couldn't do many laps. We'll have to change it before the race this
afternoon."

Yannick Dalmas (Opel) 14th: "Not very satisfied. My car is like
yesterday, still oversteering out of corners on full fuel tanks. It
behaves the same way on low tanks as well. We'll try to reduce it for
the race by stiffening the rear suspension."

Phillipe Gache (Alfa Romeo) 19th: "I tried old tyres to check the race
set-up and it feels quite good. I'm a lot happier with the car and
think I can finish in the top 10. I was able to see Larini's telemetry
yesterday and that helped me understand how to use the ABS brakes in the
corners it's a totally different technique to me."

Stefano Modena (Alfa Romeo) 21st: "I ran wide in the first corner, went
onto the dusty line and the car just slid straight across the grass,
which was still wet. It hit the wall, bending the front right suspension
but the damage is not too bad."

Alexander Grau (Mercedes) no time: "I never completed a full lap, just
kept coming into the pits. There was a problem with the engine and we
never quite managed to solve it."