In the first 20 minutes of the ...
Published on 07 September 1996 by Verstappen Info Page
In the first 20 minutes of the qualifying session for the Italian Grand Prix hardly anyone went out on the track. Only after that time it got a bit crowded and the first real times were set. The organisation had exchanged the little poles in the chicanes for stacks of tyres so everyone did his utmost to pass the chicanes properly. Pretty soon Jos got on the track and set a reasonable time. The team hadn't got a T-car available so he had to share his car with Ricardo Rosset whose car wouldn't start. After 9 laps Jos had set a very good 14th time, after which Ricardo took over the car.
Eventually Hill was fastest, followed by teammate (for now) Jacques Villeneuve and Michael Schumacher who disappointed the tifosi with a 3rd time. The McLarens, Hakkinen 4th and Coulthard 5th, showed that the Mercedes-motor is fast and Alesi qualified 6th. At the end of the session Pedro Diniz, in his T-car, alas passed Jos, so Jos qualified 15th in the end. See Italian Grand Prix Results for the times.
Jos' official statement after qualifying: "We had some bad luck this morning because we changed the differential last night and suffered a gearbox oil leak today. It took some time to fix."
"We eventually got out and made some changes, improved the aerodynamics and found three or four tenths of a second on the same tyres. That was one good thing: I saved a set of tyres."
"It was a shame that Ricardo needed to use my car in qualifying because it meant that I lost one run, but I was happy to give it to him, otherwise he wouldn't have qualified at all. Although we lost some time this morning and this afternoon, I don't think there was a lot more to come, however, and I'm happy with the result."
"We lost an opportunity to gain good information this morning and I think we're losing time on the straight, but otherwise the car feels quite good, so does my neck and although we have understeer and oversteer in some places, it's not bad in the chicanes."
