Renault

Jarno Trulli - DNF: "Retiring is always frustrating, and even more so when the team has both cars in the points. I ran well from the start, and managed to keep up with Michael and the McLarens ahead of me; the car had a good balance and was handling well. Five or six laps after my second stop, I suffered a loss in engine performance. It got worse for several laps before the car stopped completely. It’s a real shame, because it was a very good race for us until that point."

Fernando Alonso - DNF: "I don’t know exactly what the problem was – the engine simply failed as I was approaching the hairpin, just after I had moved ahead of Jarno. Of course, it is disappointing: we were both in good positions to score points today."

Flavio Briatore, Managing Director: "The weekend had gone well for the team until the problems in the race. We were quite competitive, and could have scored some important points, instead of which we leave empty-handed. We will now work hard to solve these problems, and concentrate on the next race at Silverstone.” Mike Gascoyne, Technical Director, Mild Seven Renault F1 Team “A frustrating end to a competitive race, which saw both cars retire for the first time this season. The drivers performed well, especially Jarno who had the edge today. He suffered an engine command problem, which caused an initial loss of performance, before he had to retire the car. Fernando’s engine let go suddenly. It is extremely disappointing finish the weekend like this, and more so because it is our home race."

Denis Chevrier, Engine Operations Manager: "Fernando’s car suffered a sudden engine failure, which we discovered at the same time as everybody else. We have several ideas as to the problem, but cannot reach a firm conclusion before inspecting the engine. Ascertaining Jarno’s problem is more difficult: he was suffering from a performance loss, whose cause we cannot yet determine. Without an examination of the car, we are unable to confirm any of our numerous hypotheses."

Toyota

Olivier Panis – 8th: "This eighth place is a very positive result for the team. The car felt good and I drove a strong race. In my career, I have never finished a race here at Magny-Cours, so I am relieved that this record has finally changed. I pushed really hard to keep my position and a point is a point, one that I am happy to take it in front of my home crowd. We are making progress step-by-step, but we need to continue to improve the car ahead of the next grand prix in Britain. We have made good progress at the last three grands prix, but we need to keep increasing our competitiveness."

Cristiano da Matta – 11th: "The positive things we can say after today's race is that we have our reliability back and didn't suffer from any problems during the race itself. We struggled in the race because we probably made the incorrect tyre choice, opting for prime rather than option. We cannot really blame this decision on anyone because we had wet conditions on Friday, from which we couldn't draw any conclusions, and then only 40-or-so laps on Saturday morning to decide our entire race set-up. Looking ahead, I am very optimistic for Silverstone because we had a positive test there recently, and it is a track I enjoy, so we’ll be looking for points."

Ove Andersson, Team Principal: "I am pleased that we have managed to get one point from today's race. The team has worked well this weekend and the cars have been reliable and relatively quick. We have a good solid result and another point in the bag - a particularly fitting one for Olivier at his home grand prix. Hopefully, the upward trend will continue now and more points will come. We have some improvements coming for Silverstone, so I think we can realistically target a two-car finish in the points at the British Grand Prix."

BAR

Jacques Villeneuve - 9th: "The balance of the car was good today and the Honda engine worked well. Of course I am happy to have finished a race without any technical problems but ending up ninth is pretty frustrating. I am pleased with how the car has been working but the limiting factor was the tyres today and there's nothing more that we could do. I’m looking forward to Silverstone, where we hope to be more competitive."

Jenson Button - DNF: "It’s obviously very disappointing to retire from a race because of a problem like this. It’s been a tough weekend but the team put the problems behind them and made the best of things. The race was going well; we were slow but the balance was good. I got a bit of oversteer after four or five laps but then the balance seemed to come back soon after. I was made aware by the team that there was a fuel delivery problem but then the car stopped out on track before I had time to make another pitstop. I’m looking forward to our home race in two weeks’ time when I hope the development work we’ve been doing with the engine and aerodynamics will see us improving for the rest of the season."

David Richards, Team Principal: "The best aspect of today's race for the team has been the reconfirmation of the strength of the B·A·R chassis and Honda engine relative to the other Bridgestone runners. The past few Grands Prix have not favoured our package, but I have no doubt that the pendulum will swing in the other direction in the coming races. For Silverstone we have another evolution of the Honda engine and a set of aero developments that should raise our perfomance."

Geoffrey Willis, Technical Director: "Jacques drove an excellent race today pushing hard at every stage, and despite jumping ahead of Pizzonia at the last stop, unfortunately finished just out of the points. At Jenson's first stop the crew had a problem getting the fuel nozzle on to his car and had to revert to the other rig. However, due to an error, only a fraction of the fuel was delivered by this second rig, and during the time it took to reconcile the conflicting data, we were unable to pit Jenson in time to avoid him stopping out on the circuit. I would like to thank the crew for their performance all year, as pit-stops are one of our strengths, and this was an uncharacteristic problem which we will review in the calm light of day. Given the performance of our competitors' tyres it was always going to be difficult to score points here, but we look forward to our imminent Honda engine and aero upgrades, along with future tyre developments, to renew our battle for points."

Shuhei Nakamoto, Engineering Director, Honda Racing Development: "Jacques did well to finish ninth having started 12th on the grid, but it's clearly frustrating to just miss out on points. It was obviously an exasperating afternoon for Jenson. We're all looking forward to a productive test in Barcelona next week and of course the team's home race at Silverstone, where we'll be working hard to give the local fans and all our staff a good result."

Sauber

Heinz-Harald Frentzen - 12th: "I was on a three-stop strategy and I think that was a good decision. The car was well-balanced, but I had to look in the mirrors a lot as I was lapped quite a few times. At my last pit stop there was a misunderstanding and that's why I left the pits too early, before my crew had finished the refuelling. Fortunately no-one got hurt. I apologise for this incident."

Nick Heidfeld - 13th: "I had an average start - I neither won nor lost positions. We decided upon a two-stop strategy, but now I am not sure whether this was the right step. My biggest difficulty today was an electronic problem selecting the lower gears, and at my second pit stop there was a problem with the right front wheelnut."

Peter Sauber: "We could not expect more than this result, although you're always hoping to score a point. But we are happy that we have regained our mechanical reliability, which was our strength at the beginning of this season. Negative was that Jaguar overtook us. The three-stop strategy with Heinz-Harald was a good decision, but I have to say now that the two-stop strategy chosen for Nick was wrong."

Minardi

Justin Wilson - 14th: "I knew with the fuel strategy we had today that I just had to push hard for the whole race and keep going - Jos was on a three-stopper and it was going to be close whether that or the two-stop approach we had chosen was going to be better. The guys did a good job with the pit stops and that really helped. I thought there was an intermittent problem with the transmission in the first part of the race, as the car was losing speed quite badly on the straights, which is how Ralph Firman passed me. I eventually re-passed him, and although the problem had me concerned for a while, it cleared up and the car was fine for the rest of the race. Anyway, it's another Grand Prix finish, which is really good."

Jos Verstappen - 16th: "It was a hard race, particularly in terms of the handling of the car. It started well enough and the initial set of tyres was good. After the first stop, though, the tyres were okay for five laps, but then the car developed bad oversteer, so much so that I blistered the rears badly. Late in the stint, the engine also suffered a broken exhaust, but I just pushed as hard as I could. Following the second pit stop, the handling was really bad and I lost a lot of time, while after the final scheduled stop, the handling was again good for the first few laps, but then deteriorated. Five laps from the end of the race, the left front wheel came loose turning into one of the high-speed chicanes, and I had no choice but to drive straight on. I came into the pits for a new set of tyres and went back out, but the car didn't feel quite right and I pitted again two laps later for the guys to check it. They assured me everything was okay, and I then set my fastest lap. All the problems meant we were frequently being lapped this afternoon, and it's hard to run your own race when you're getting blue flags all the time and having to move over for other cars. Anyway, at least I made it to the finish, which is a small reward for all the effort put in by the team."

Paul Stoddart, Team Principal: "All in all, it wasn't a bad weekend - to have a provisional pole position and to get both cars home ahead of the Jordans and within sight of the Saubers wasn't a bad day's work. As usual, both our drivers and the team did an excellent job."

Jordan

Ralph Firman - 15th: "The car started off quite good on the first set of tyres but I gradually had more and more oversteer as the circuit got more grip. There was a slight hesitation with the engine after the first stop and I also had to come in for an extra stop so the team could investigate a vibration after my second stop. I’m looking forward to testing in Barcelona next week and then my home Grand Prix at Silverstone."

Giancarlo Fisichella - DNF: "I’m very disappointed. The car had a lot of oversteer and virtually no grip, we are struggling with the whole package. Our pace is not good enough compared to everyone else. Fighting with the Minardis for the last few positions is not my target. I need a better car and hope it will come soon - we need a big step."

Gary Anderson, Director Of Race And Test Engineering: "This Grand Prix was tough for us. We struggled with grip all weekend and it was the same story in the race. Giancarlo had an engine failure but our pace was not good so if he’d finished it wouldn’t have been in the points anyway. We had to bring Ralph in for an extra stop because he experienced a vibration and we wanted to check everything was okay. Clearly our result is disappointing for all but we are all working hard to improve the whole package – chassis, engine and tyres."