Ferrari

Michael Schumacher: "I am very happy to be on pole for the first time this season. My car has worked well all weekend. I must thank Eddie for all the development work he did in testing last week. I did my quickest time on my first run. I was unable to improve on my last two runs. On the penultimate one I pushed too hard and made a mistake and the last one was spoilt by the yellow flags after a car spun in front of us. Tomorrow?s race will be tough on the brakes and on the car as we use the kerbs a lot here. The car has to be strong and reliable and I believe ours will be."

Eddie Irvine: "For sure I had the potential to be second quickest. I had three runs to get it right and it is always likely that you will lose one run with traffic or a mistake or yellow flags. That is just the way it goes. On one lap I brushed the wall at the final corner with a rear tyre, but the car was not damaged."

Jean Todt: "It is the first time this season that we have been quickest in qualifying. Our cars have gone well on both the past two days here. The team and the drivers have done an excellent job. For tomorrow we must think about how to make a good start. Both Michael and Eddie had their last runs spoilt by waved yellow flags on the track, which prevented them from improving their times."

McLaren

Mika Hakkinen: "We have worked very hard to get the right race set up and now I feel confident with the car. Everyone has done a really good job, especially as the mechanics had to do a lot of work on the car after my shunt at the end of practice this morning. But now I feel quite optimistic and happy that the car is better than it has been all weekend and that it will be good for the race."

David Coulthard: "Being slower this afternoon than I was this morning is a little confusing. I couldn't attack the corners with the same confidence during qualifying as I did in practice so I will be looking at the data with my engineers to see if we can establish the problem and how we can improve the handling for tomorrow's race."

Ron Dennis: "Both drivers did a great job but the twenty nine thousandths of a second, which was the difference between Mika being second on the grid or claiming his sixth consecutive pole, will be a number that we will remember for a while. Both David and Mika have a good race set up and so it should be an interesting Sunday."

Stewart

Rubens Barrichello: "We changed the set-up between practice and qualifying which enabled the car to handle the kerbs much better. It made the car friendlier to drive and faster. I was very happy with my fastest lap. However I reckon I could have gone even faster. I was following Irvine's Ferrari but we were slowed by the yellow flag on our flying laps. like this circuit and we have done well here in the past. We still have a slight worry for the race with brake cooling on a heavy fuel load but every other team will have the same problem."

Johnny Herbert: "I'm definitely getting there. I feel like it's going to click into place for me soon. I'm still losing time and traction during the lap. I found an improvement in the car from yesterday and this morning by making a set-up change aimed at improving stability. The race will be tight. We are all on the same tyres and probably the same strategy so the start will be crucial. I'm confident of a good finish."

Gary Anderson, Technical Director: "From an overall team point of view this was a very pleasing qualifying performance. Rubens was once again right behind the McLarens and Ferraris and Johnny has found a bit extra which is encouraging for him. In fact, this is the closest Rubens has been to the McLarens all year. The car has performed well, particularly in these conditions. The track was very hot out there today. We must now keep it tight and clean in the race in order to pick another points finish."

Neil Ressler, Vice-President, Research & Vehicle Technology, Ford: "This is a most encouraging performance in qualifying for the Stewart-Ford team's first Grand Prix under Ford ownership. Both cars ran faultlessly throughout the day and since we have a good track record in Canada - the closest thing Ford has to a home Grand Prix - we are looking forward to a strong race tomorrow."

Jordan

Heinz-Harald Frentzen: "We are getting closer to the front of the grid, but for the moment, I think this is as far up as we can get. We are continually making progress but so are the other teams, so we have not yet managed to improve on sixth place. But I think we can be happy; it is a pretty good position to start the race from. I had a few incidents in the qualifying session; first I was held up on the first run by Zonta which was unnecessary because he was on his out lap and I think he could have moved off the racing line. I came close to hitting Diniz on my third run. I was surprised that he braked so suddenly. He had finished his qualifying lap but did not seem to want to let me through on my qualifying lap, so I thought at least I would get a tow from him, and then he suddenly braked, so I very nearly went into him. For the race tomorrow, I do not think the heat will affect the tyres, but the brakes will suffer a lot. Our car is strong and well set up so I am pretty confident."

Damon Hill: "Fourteenth is not very good and I am disappointed. I would like to think I could do better than that and, although we did have problems, I cannot put all the blame down to that. I had an engine problem on my race car so moved to the spare car which was set up for Heinz-Harald. I actually quite liked the set up but it was difficult to adapt to it because the gear ratios and brakes were different. When I pressed the brakes nothing happened which was quite an alarming moment. Luckily I found reverse and got myself back on track, which at least moved me up from 20th to 14th! The race will be very unpleasant in this heat, but the tyres can withstand very high temperatures, so they will not be affected. Traditionally it is a race of attrition, and tomorrow should not be any different. It is very difficult to stay on the track, so it could be a race full of incidents."

Williams

Alex Zanardi: "Even if I think that everybody has some problems to complain about, I am not still satisfied with my car so far. Anyway we still have one day of work in front of us to make some further changes on the car in order to adapt it to my way of driving."

Ralf Schumacher: "My first lap was ok, but when I came to the last chicane I braked a little too late, lost the rear of my car and crashed into the wall. With the T-car I had an accident with Zonta where my rear wing was slightly damaged, so I came straight into the pit to have it changed and afterwards the best I could do was the 13th place. In the end I am a little disappointed, because I had expected a better position on the starting grid. Anyway, the race will be long: I hope I will have a good start and bring the car into the points."

Frank Williams: "Obviously disappointing for us we had strong hopes that we could get better positions on the grid with our drivers. When Ralf lost his own race car, he and his crew had difficulty in setting up the T-car perfectly for him as it is necessary these days. It was also difficult for Alex to catch up after the difficulties he had experienced on Friday."