Even though the Arrows team was unable to put in a memorable performance in qualifying this afternoon, officials admitted it was "good to be part of the action again" after the problems of Friday.
The outfit was cleared to compete today after Team Principal Tom Walkinshaw dug into his own pockets to fix late payments for the use of Cosworth V10 engines. Yesterday the Scot had been rushing to do a deal and at one point it looked as though the team might have to miss the event.
Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Enrique Bernoldi took to the track for the first time this morning and then went straight into qualifying. Despite a good performance this practice, neither driver was able to shine, due to balance and traffic problems. Heinz-Harald Frentzen managed 16th, while Enrique Bernoldi was 18th.
'First of all it's good to be part of the action again!' said Graham Taylor, Chief Engineer. 'Enrique managed to improve throughout the session but Heinz had a few problems with understeer.
HHF:'In the last sector on his final run he was four tenths slower than previously as he came across one of the Williams cars. As the grid is so tight that four tenths would have meant a top ten result for us but that's life. We're pleased we didn't have any technical problems after missing out on practice yesterday but a little disappointed as our positions don't reflect our pace.
'I'd like to say well done to the team for staying focused throughout the weekend.'
'We tried very hard today but unfortunately on my last run I caught traffic,' Frentzen said. 'It was a very tight session so just one tenth of a second can make a difference of three or four places. You have to get everything together for the last run, as that is the one that counts. I had three clear runs and then on the one that mattered I had traffic.'
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