100th pole for Michelin

Fernando Alonso (Renault) has taken Michelin’s 18th pole position of the season – and the 100th in the company’s illustrious Formula One history. First Bridgestone driver during the qualifying session was again Michael Schumacher, who will is 6th on tomorrow's starting grid, for the last GP of the 2005 Formula One season.

Pierre Dupasquier, Michelin Motorsport Director “This 100th F1 pole is a nice way to sign off my career. Life has changed considerably over the years – I remember in 1979 that we’d bring 12 sets of qualifying tyres per car to each race, six batches of two different compounds! We were very successful in those days but have also mastered the more restrictive regulations of recent seasons. Our ‘prime’ and ‘option’ tyres will both feature in tomorrow’s Grand Prix. Thus far we haven’t been generating particularly spectacular first- lap performance – but our speed and consistency over long runs has been excellent.”

Nick Shorrock, Director of Michelin F1 Activities “Track temperatures still haven’t reached the levels we were anticipating and our engineers have put in a fantastic amount of effort to fine-tune set-ups that improved operating conditions for our tyres. We would prefer slightly higher temperatures tomorrow, but in the circumstances I’ve been very pleased with our performance and would like to thank the whole group for its unstinting hard work. It is also fitting that we are celebrating our 100th F1 pole position ahead of Pierre’s final race – a significant landmark at the end of a long and very distinguished career.”

Pat Symonds, Renault Executive Engineering Director “Michelin provided us with two very competitive dry-weather compounds this weekend and it wasn’t easy to make a final selection. That is a tribute to the quality of its products. Whatever the outcome tomorrow, the whole 2005 season has been a testament to the high standard of Michelin’s work.”

Hisao Suganuma, Technical Manager “Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello showed today that they have the potential for a good race tomorrow. Qualifying in sixth and eighth positions gives them a good chance. From a tyre point of view this circuit can be tough on wear but things look fine at the moment and we are not expecting to have heat durability problems. Ferrari look in reasonable shape for the race. For the Jordan and Minardi teams today was their last qualifying under their current banners. Narain Karthikeyan qualified a solid 15th which should give him a good start tomorrow. His teammate Tiago Monteiro ran wide in the last sector so today’s time was not a true reflection of his time. I look forward also to seeing Christijan Albers and Robert Doornbos have a good race tomorrow.”