By Ian Lockwood
March 19 2005

This afternoon saw David and Christian competing in the first of two qualifying sessions. Drivers went out in reverse order of the final result from the last race in Melbourne, and therefore David and Christian headed out onto the track 17th and 14th respectively.

Saturday morning offered Red Bull Racing the final opportunity to test for the best set-up before qualifying and David Coulthard and Christian Klien participated in the two 45-minute sessions this morning. The two drivers headed out twenty minutes into the first of this morning’s sessions and each completed one long run. Christian became the star of the second practice session as he recorded the second fastest time in his RB1, just 0.038 seconds behind the Toyota of Jarno Trulli. David further proved the speed of the team by finishing fifth fastest in second practice.

This afternoon saw David and Christian competing in the first of two qualifying sessions. Drivers went out in reverse order of the final result from the last race in Melbourne, and therefore David and Christian headed out onto the track 17th and 14th respectively. After the fiercely competitive session with track temperatures of over 50°C, Christian holds a provisional tenth spot grid place, with David provisionally 11th, ahead of both Ferrari drivers.

David Coulthard:
Chassis Number: 2
Time: 1:33.809
Position: 11th
“Temperatures were up at least ten degrees since this morning so we tried to make adjustments accordingly. Balance was down a little bit, and it was a bit of a tentative lap really. We’re limited in what we can do tomorrow really, we can put some more fuel and we can make an aero adjustment, maybe a little bit on pressures and that’s it. Balance has just made things difficult here. If we look at a reasonable trend on the tyres during the race then I think we can hold position but obviously not qualifying that well is not good.”

Christian Klien:
Chassis Number: 1
Time: 1:33.724
Position: 10th
“The day was quite positive for us because practice went well. I worked really hard with my engineer and we did a good job, got a good balance on the car and then had a really good lap time at the end of the second session. I was really confident about qualifying but I was expecting a little bit more grip and I made a little mistake in the first corner and lost four tenths. The rest of the lap was quite reasonable and the car was good but overall I’m not that happy with the lap. We still have second qualifying tomorrow and hopefully we can gain a little time and maybe some positions then.”

Christian Horner, Sporting Director:
“I think 10th and 11th is respectable but we have got the potential to go better. Neither driver is happy with the lap that they did. Christian went a little bit wide on turn one and lost a few tenths but he recovered well for the rest of his lap and David lost a little bit of time at the end of the lap. There were no problems reported as such although the balance did change from this morning’s sessions and we had to deal with a higher track temperature this afternoon. We’re in good shape with the tyres and overall I think we’re in the ballpark. Tomorrow will be an interesting second half and we will see if we can move forward.”

Source: Red Bull Racing

Racingbulls.co.uk comment

A reasonably solid first qualifying for the team, but nothing special. It is heartening in some ways that we achieved 10th & 11th on relatively poor laps for both drivers. A look at the complete timing from Q1 shows how tight things are:-

01 F. Alonso Renault 1:32.582
02 J. Trulli Toyota 1:32.672
03 G. Fisichella Renault 1:32.765
04 K. Räikkönen McLaren 1:32.839
05 R. Schumacher Toyota 1:33.106
06 M. Webber Williams 1:33.204
07 JP. Montoya McLaren 1:33.333
08 N. Heidfeld Williams 1:33.464
09 J. Button BAR 1:33.616
10 C. Klien Red Bull 1:33.724
11 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:33.809
12 M. Schumacher Ferrari 1:34.072
13 F. Massa Sauber 1:34.151
14 R. Barrichello Ferrari 1:34.162 
15 A. Davidson BAR 1:34.866
16 J. Villeneuve Sauber 1:34.887
17 N. Karthikeyan Jordan 1:37.806
18 T. Monteiro Jordan 1:37.856
19 P. Friesacher Minardi 1:39.268
20 C. Albers Minardi 1:40.432

With just a second between 4th & 11th places and the RB1 seeming to do comparitively well with a tank full of fuel on board, there is still everything to play for in Q2.