“The whole team did a really great job in what was, as we expected, a very tough qualifying,” said Jarno who finished the session in sixth. “I’m happy with sixth position on this track because in the past, the team’s performance has not been very strong in Barcelona. On my quickest run there was some traffic and I didn’t really get a completely free lap, which is a shame because fifth may have been possible as the gap from one car to another is so close. I’m confident for tomorrow, as this year the car is proving to be reliable and very competitive in the races. I hope I’ll have a good start but it’s going to be a very tough Grand Prix.”

“I did my best today, although it wasn’t the greatest qualifying for me,” Heinz commented on his eight place. “I was one tenth away from my aim of trying to break the 1:19 barrier, but got the maximum I could out of the car given the windy conditions and traffic. I think it will be a very tight race tomorrow, particularly with lap times becoming more similar as everybody starts from a level playing field, but this should also make it quite exciting."

Meanwhile, Eddie Jordan believes the session showed a breakaway for McLaren and Ferrari from the chasing teams. The first qualifying session since the new traction control software was introduced seems to have separated the pack. “Qualifying was incredibly tight. There could have been any one of twelve drivers at the front today as there seems to be two clear groups – first McLaren and Ferrari, with Jordan, Williams, Sauber and BAR following closely. It was exciting and although it wasn’t our best qualifying, to be on the third and fourth row of the grid is still good. At this moment our aim is to keep scoring points and continue improving on the performance we have shown so far this year.”