Formula One news

Sauber hopeful of Brazilian points

Sauber Petronas drivers Felipe Massa and Jacques Villeneuve will start tomorrow's Brazilian Grand Prix from eighth and 11th positions respectively after this afternoon's qualifying session.

"Considering the strategy we have chosen for the race, I'm really happy with my lap this afternoon," Villeneuve said. "It was clean and quick. The only concern is that my car seems to be some way down on straight-line speed compared to Felipe's, which is odd since we had a similar aero set-up. We need to check the data to see if there is anything amiss on the car."

Felipe Massa commented, "I'm disappointed with my lap. Compared to this morning the balance of the car was not quite so good, and that lost me some crucial time not just in the Senna S. I had understeer there, and in Turn Nine I had understeer again which suddenly became snap oversteer on the exit. I think I lost a couple of places as a result. But we have good race pace and I am still starting in the top 10 so it's not too bad, but I had hoped for more today."

Team chief Peter Sauber concluded, "We chose different strategies for Felipe and Jacques, to give ourselves different options if it rains tomorrow. Felipe was not at all happy with his lap, as he knows it could have been quicker. Jacques delivered the performance we expected of him; he did a very strong lap. We now hope that we can score points by starting from eighth and 11th places."

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