HRT - AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX – DAY 1
17/3/2005 18:27 (Press Release) -
Albert Park, Melbourne
March 3, 2005
Weather: Fine, warm
Practice (30 mins)
Fastest time: 1min 58.5281sec
3rd: Mark Skaife 1min 59.2095sec (on 11th of 11 laps)
8th: Todd Kelly 1min 59.5270sec (on 10th of 11 laps)
Qualifying (split, 2 x 20min sessions)
Fastest time: 1min 57.7480sec
1st: Todd Kelly 1min 57.7480sec
3rd: Mark Skaife 1min 57.8054sec
Note: Todd Kelly will start from pole position and Mark Skaife 3rd on the grid for tomorrow’s first race as the AGP format does not include a Top 10 Shootout.
Todd Kelly:
“For the car the car to be that good straight out – it’s only the second time I’ve driven it – is a great start. We’re going as hard as we can at this point – we need to do that because we need to learn as much as we can about it (the car) especially before Adelaide because I don’t think we’re testing before Adelaide.
“So I just wanted to go out and simulate what a championship round would be like just to try to get a real good feel for the car.
“Everything is absolutely perfect with the car except for the seat which is giving my back a bit of grief. We’re going to foam up a new insert in the morning and see if that solves it. We’ll do one every day if that’s what it takes to get it sorted.”
Mark Skaife:
“It wasn’t my best qualifying effort, it was a very average effort. There was probably half a second in doing it better than I did. It bodes well for how good the car is and effectively how much grip we’ve got, but it wasn’t a very professional run and it wasn’t a lap that I was happy with.”
“The cars are much better than they were here last year, great for Todd to be on pole and for us to first and third is a pretty good start to what is going to be a much better year for us.”
(On leaving the track towards the end of the qualifying session)
“I just locked the rear brakes and turned around the towards the end of the second (flying) lap which was one of trying a bit hard and having a bit of front brake fade so those things together into there is pretty easy to make a blue like that.”
Release Date: 03/03/2005
Holden Racing Team
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