Final Qualifying: "Our strategy is working well"

On track
By Phil Huff
March 8 2003

Sauber Petronas drivers Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Nick Heidfeld will start tomorrow's Australian Grand Prix in fourth and seventh places respectively after today's second qualifying session.

Nick Heidfeld comments "I pushed the car to the limit without going off. It was a good lap, not perfect, but I am reasonably happy taking into account the track time that we've lost so far this weekend. The balance of the car was good and I got the most out of it."

Heinz-Harald Frentzen added "My car was better balanced today, and overall I'm pretty happy. I couldn't get the second chicane quite right, but everywhere else the car felt really good. I won't know just how good though, until after the race!"

Peter Sauber, Team Principal, commented "Both Heinz Harald and Nick did a good job today and both were satisfied with the performance of the Sauber Petronas C22. As this is the first time that the new mode of qualifying has been used it will be exciting to see whether we have made the right decisions for the race. On today's result, we are satisfied that our strategy is working well."