By Phil Giles
August 18 2002

Giancarlo Fisichella has put his EJ12 up onto the third row of the grid in Hungary, eclipsed only by Williams and Ferrari. Team mate Takuma Sato lines up in 14th.

With an improved Honda engine, the Team are optimistic that they will score points in the race, building on their form during practice on Friday and warm up.

"This is another good qualifying result and my best this year, so I’m very pleased," Fisi said. " We’ve been quick all weekend and yesterday I was confident that we could be on the front three or four rows. Fifth is great for the race start tomorrow and I’m feeling positive and very strong mentally. Physically, it’s going to be a very difficult race, but I’m confident. I like the circuit and I hope to score points."

Taku was unable to improve on 14th place after a gearbox oil leak forced him into the T-Car.

"What bad luck," Sato said. "I aborted my first attack when a Renault spun in front of me and I set my fastest time on the second outing. On the third run I could see smoke coming from the car and some oil was leaking out. I jumped into the T-car for my final attempt but unfortunately it wasn’t quite the same as my race car. We had a few problems with it, which limited our chance of improving."

Gary Anderson:
"So far it's been a very satisfying weekend. Giancarlo's fifth place is our highest grid position this year and the best qualifying result today for Bridgestone, apart from the Ferraris, who, after all, are not in the same league as the rest of us! I'm very pleased for Giancarlo because this is where he deserves to be. Tomorrow we have got to try and get a good race out of the position. Takuma's race car had an oil leak and he had to get into the spare car for his last run. It's never the same and there were a few problems so alas, the last-minute effort to move him up wasn't to be."