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Australia Qualifying 
March 2, 2001

Ferrari teammates Michael Schumacher and Reuben's Barrichello will start 1-2 in Australia ahead of Hakkinen, Frentzen and Ralf Schumacher.  Schumacher lapped the 3.295mi Albert Park circuit at 1:26.892/136.519mph, some 3.66sec faster (the result of a ludicrous tire war) than last year’s pole time (1:30.556, Mika Hakkinen) and 2.47sec faster than the previous all-time qualifying lap at Melbourne.  His Ferrari teammate, Rubens Barrichello, was second-fastest, .371 sec in arrears, with Hakkinen another .2sec slower.  Heinz-Harald Frentzen was fourth in the best-of-the-rest Jordan/Honda, ahead of Williams’ Ralf Schumacher. Hakkinen’s teammate David Coulthard, Frentzen’s teammate Jarno Trulli, BAR teammates Jacques Villeneuve and Olivier Panis and Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld completed the top 10

Heinz-Harald Frenzen took his Benson & Hedges Jordan Honda onto the second row of the grid for tomorrow's Australian Grand Prix in the midst of the pace-setting Ferraris and McLarens, heading his three Honda-powered adversaries - Jordan Honda's Jarno Trulli and Lucky Strike Reynard BAR Honda's Jacques Villeneuve and Olivier Panis - who all secured starting positions in the top 10. For Honda the results reflected solid foundations of its dual team challenge which have been set by a winter of intensive preparation and hard work. 

The fine weather continued at Melbourne's Albert Park circuit for qualifying, with ambient and track temperatures of 22 and 26 degrees Celsius respectively, as Michael Schumacher reaffirmed his credentials as reigning world champion with a convincing pole position performance. As he traded provisional pole position with his Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello, the McLarens of Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard strived with Frentzen and Ralf Schumacher to close the gap. 

Schumacher's WilliamsF1 team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya, in his first Formula One qualifying session, was involved in a moment of excitement with BAR Honda's Jacques Villeneuve when their cars made contact as the Canadian travelled past the Colombian on a flying lap. Luciano Burti brought the session to a temporary halt 10 minutes from the end when his Jaguar struck a trackside wall, scattering wheels and debris across the track. 

Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Jordan Honda Position: 4th "Until now, I haven't really wanted to talk about the car because we were waiting to see how it performed in competitive circuit conditions. But now 'the cat's out of the bag' so to speak, and people can see that the car is quick. The EJ11 is the best Jordan I have ever driven. The true test will be during tomorrow's race, but I'm very happy with everything so far." 

Kazutoshi Nishizawa - Technical Director, Honda Racing Development "Today's performance was generally good but not by any means perfect. Today's results have confirmed that we are moving in the right direction and reflect the work we carried out over the winter and in testing. But everyone is quicker than everybody thought, especially the leading teams, which we may have underestimated a little. As far as tomorrow's race is concerned there are a few areas with which we are not completely satisfied. We will be concentrating on these settings tonight to be in a strong position for the race. Other than that we have no concerns for the race." 

Eddie Jordan, Chief Executive, Jordan Honda "I'm very happy with the effort put in and results achieved by everybody today. It was a solid performance, especially given this was the first time the car has run in total qualifying trim in terms of fuel, tyres and set-up. Things didn't seem to pull together fully for Jarno but Heinz was 
right up there. We've completed a good number of laps in the last two days and the consistent performance shows the car's reliable and honest characteristics. We hope to improve on this even further as the season goes on." 

Craig Pollock, Team Principal and Managing Director, BAR Honda "I am very pleased to have the two cars in the top 10 but it does show that we still have quite a lot of work to do. We could have done better but we have two good cars and drivers so we are in a position to race tomorrow." 

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