Notes:-
* Major story of the day was the disqualification from the meeting of Alessandro Nannini and Giancarlo Fisichella for fuel irregularities. All times were disallowed, and no further participation was possible.

Comments (from Friday qualifying):

Alessandro Nannini (before disqualification): "Everything is fine. And I won't complain about being fastest. I'm really content." I bet he wasn't later though.

JJ Lehto: "I'm really happy, this was quite a good lap. Particularly as I'm definitely not a one lap man, normally I need four or five laps to do a really good one. I started the weekend with my Red Indian styled Le Mans helmet, as my new one arrived only in the afternoon. And now, that it worked out so good, I'll probably use this helmet for all the weekend."

Joerg Van Ommen: "This was really satisfying. If there will be changes to the car? No, only the mirrors will be adjusted and it will be washed......"

Manuel Reuter: "This was rather tight. But I'm quite happy to have reached a top ten place, as I have a handicap weight of 24kg in the car, and these kilos have a rather decisive effect on this track. As well we have some problems to get the tyres up to working temperature."

Bernd Schneider: "I'm happy to be amongst the top ten, but there is some work left to be done for tomorrow's Top Qualifying."

Hans-Joachim Stuck: "Uwe Alzen braked me down on my fastest lap. This really did cost me a lot of time. He claimed he didn't see me."

Jan Magnussen: "There were some slight handling problems, but I'm happy to have done the top ten despite of my 27kg handicap."

Nicola Larini: "After the fire we had to change the engine and several other part. After this the handling wasn't perfect of course, and it was really impossible to go faster."

Kurt Thiim: "I did nearly no laps during the two practice sessions, so there was no possibility to set the car up. This is really frustrating."

Michael Bartels: "I must admit that I didn't do a perfect lap, but even then it would have been more than difficult to enter the top ten. I'm not too optimistic for the weekend now."

Saturday qualifying comments:

Van Ommen: "Now the season has just started for me. I ran on the limit on my warm-up lap and I helped get tyres to temperature by braking very hard wherever I could."

Kurt Thiim: His qualfying time, set in the B-Group, would have been good enough for eighth overall in the Top Ten, but still sees potential for improvement. "I really went too conservative, too far from the limit, and not aggressive enough."

Ellen Lohr: "I simply braked too late." After this she went into the gravel, and thus gained the last grid slot.

Bernd Maylaender: "Understeering on the uphill section up to the Dunlop Kurve, and getting on the gas too soon after the chicane before the start/finish, I know that's where I lost my time." Maylaender's time was set in a 1995 spec car, and was underneath the pole time of last year. "With this time I expected to be in the top 20," said a disappointed Maylaender.