F1: Stewart-Ford Qualifying Report from the Japanese Grand Prix
1 November 1998
Saturday 31st October: QUALIFYINGPaul Stewart, Managing Director:
'We seemed to lose our way as far as the chassis is concerned today. Considering Jos was ninth fastest yesterday, we were expecting to be higher up the grid. We are not exactly sure where the problem lies. We plan to run a significant set-up change in tomorrow morning's warm-up and make a decision based on our performance then as to whether we should head in that direction for the race.'
Martin Whitaker, Ford European Director of Motorsport:
'Despite all the hard work which has been done and the progress made since the Luxembourg Grand Prix, the grid positions have not improved - underlining the competitiveness of Formula One. We have had a trouble- free Friday and Saturday with the Series 6 engines and hope this will continue tomorrow when this latest specification of engine will be making its race debut.'
Rubens Barrichello: Car no.18: SF-2/05 Time:1:40.502 Position:16th
'I'm disappointed to have qualified where I did after arriving here in a positive frame of mind following our recent test programme. I felt I got the maximum out of the car but we couldn't find that extra bit we thought we would in qualifying. I tried everything I could set-up wise but struggled for balance throughout the session. I'm looking forward to the race but I'd prefer to be attacking it from higher up the grid.'
Jos Verstappen: Car no.19: SF-2/02 Time:1:40.943 Position:19th
'It was a difficult qualifying session. The balance of the car changed since this morning's practice so we couldn't find the ideal set-up. I went on the grass during my second run and decided to abandon the lap. My final time was quicker than the ones I did earlier today but the improvement was not enough. We are going to look at the data overnight to see how we can improve the balance of the car for tomorrow.'
T-car: SF-2/03
