1992 Season Formula One World Championship Hungarian Grand Prix - Saturday Quotes

Tyrrell

Olivier Grouillard: I got out half way through the session and put in two quick laps on my first set, although I had traffic on the first, just to set a time. Then changed to the second set and was going for the quick one when I was blocked by a spinning Minardi - I'm not sure if it was Morbidelli or Zanardi who had me off. I got the last four minutes after the stoppage in the T-car but the traffic was atrocious. It was a shame because I think I could have gone at least a second quicker, maybe a 19.5 or a 19 dead.

Andrea de Cesaris: The ride height problems we had this morning set us back a bit but this afternoon was basically down to finding space in the traffic when the car was going well. I only got two real chances and on the best lap I went wide on the corner before the T2 chicane to avoid some oil on the track and I picked up so much dirt I was forced wide again at the next bend. Things will be better tomorrow because the car is good with a full fuel load.

Williams

Nigel Mansell: I am very happy to be on the front of the grid. It was a lottery this afternoon with the difficulty of getting clear laps and there were many accidents. I had one at the end with everybody else because people went off in front of me. I came round on a very quick lap, there was dust on the circuit and I lost the car. It was as simple as that. I am afraid the circuit is like this and tomorrow in the race, it is going to be very difficult.

Riccardo Patrese: It was very difficult to find a clear lap today. I think that maybe there was a little more grip, but there was more wind too and I think that because of that we lost something aerodynamically. We expected to improve, but couldn't because of the traffic. It was very, very busy. There were cars off everywhere, but it has been like that all year since South Africa. Having no qualifying tyres, means the circuits are greasy and the track is worse and more dangerous. But I think the race will be easier tomorrow if everyone respects the blue flag. I am optimistic. I am on pole position and if I am first at the first corner I have a big advantage. But let us wait and see.

Footwork

Michele Alboreto: It was a good, clear lap at the right moment, when I think it was a little cooler. I'm very happy with it, because it's very important to start from the front here. On my second set of tyres I didn't have a clear lap, but I'd already been lucky enough! We changed the car a little from yesterday: reduced the downforce, changed the damper set-up. Yesterday we were slow, today we are better. I've been using the new gearbox throughout, and it's already very reliable. As for the race, I hope there won't be so many spins. It's different when you're qualifying: you risk everything.

Aguri Suzuki: We made a lot of changes overnight in order to reduce understeer, iron out the bumps and reduce our downforce and all in all, it was a big improvement. I don't know if the track was quicker today, it seemed to come and go a bit, but many people were a second quicker and we were two seconds quicker. I had no problems today, just Berger spinning in front of me. I had one small spin; my best lap was virtually in clear conditions, so that was good.

Lotus

Mika Häkkinen: I started off feeling really confident this afternoon, because I knew the car was good from this morning. But then it developed a slight gear selector problem which affected my times a bit. I came in and we made a few changes, but then the car wasn't as good as it had been in free practice, so we took the decision to switch to the spare. I'd just gone out when the red flag came out. We all had to wait a long time for the restart, and then I got one warm-up lap and only one really hard one. I was determined to push as hard as I could. Unfortunately I was behind Morbidelli and you can imagine the stones I was showered with when he went off in the last corner. I kept pushing really hard, but then when he slowed down in the high-speed corners, I had to back off as well.

Johnny Herbert: We made good progress today, the car was much more driveable. It was very annoying with the Berger / Suzuki incident when I was on such a good lap as good positions are very important here. I was following Berger and Suzuki when Gerhard went off, and I saw the cloud of dust he kicked up long before I got to the corner I think Suzuki panicked a bit because Gerhard was way down the road, and I was really pleased with the spin I had to do to avoid contact. I kept it off the barriers, but unfortunately the only low point about it was that I stalled the engine.

Fondmetal

Eric van de Poele: At the end of qualifying I think we found a good set-up for tomorrow. It feels wonderful to be in a Grand Prix for the first time since Kyalami -- and to qualify 18th may not seem extraordinary, but for me it is like a new baptism in F1. I am still getting used to the car, and I had a spin at the beginning of free practice this morning. The worst moments were all when I found myself behind someone who was spinning. There was a particularly frightening moment when Gugelmin went off the road in front of me and I was almost blind in the dust cloud which he threw up in the air. Tomorrow is going to be a tough race, so we will concentrate in the morning on making the car as comfortable as possible to drive.

Gabriele Tarquini: It's a pity that I could not do more running in this afternoon's qualifying session, because the car was capable of a place in the top ten. In fact, because of clutch problems I did not get on to the track until 20 minutes after the start of the qualifying session. Although I improved my time since yesterday on the first set of tyres, 4th gear broke after I had done only one lap on the second set -- and that ended my day. Fortunately, this morning we felt confident enough to do some full tank running during the first 40 minutes. Apart from a little problem with the brakes, the car was not bad -- and we seem to have a good balance when it is full of fuel.

Benetton

Michael Schumacher: Both sessions went well. We had a good set up right from the start thanks to a lot of good work today. But I found it difficult to go any quicker on my second set -- I was on a flying lap when second gear jumped out at the second corner. I carried on and the gear jumped out again at the second chicane, this time making me spin. It was my fault, but a great pity because as the split times show I was on a really quick lap until then. I tried another lap, but for some reason the handling did not seem as good.

Martin Brundle: I'm still unable to find the set-up I would like for qualifying, so I took Michael's set-up, but I was not happy with it. There was too much oversteer for me. I have to find my own set-up. I had quite a good run on race tanks this morning. As usual my second run was a complete waste of petrol... there was endless traffic and then they put the red flag out which completely destroyed my lap. So my fastest lap was done on the old set of tyres. I feel lucky to be in sixth place.

Jordan

Stefano Modena: I had a day of spins today! I think the problem was that somebody would spin ahead and put dust on the track and then I'd arrive there and spin on that dust, and so on. I'm sure that was Mansell's problem because he went off just where I had come back onto the track. Both cars were good although I had a few problems with engines, but I'm pleased to be in the race at least.

Maurício Gugelmin: Potentially I could have been quicker this afternoon, but I just didn't get a clear lap which is a persistent problem here. The trouble is that the track is so dusty that even when you are on a slower lap nobody goes too much off line because your tyres get so dirty. As a result the traffic is horrendous. I also overdid it a bit on my second quick lap and had quite a big spin at the fourth turn!