Hungarian Grand Prix - Qualifying Round-Up
IT'S GRAINING AGAIN
Panasonic Toyota Racing will line up with two drivers in
the first four rows of the grid for tomorrow's Hungarian Grand
Prix after today's hour of qualifying at the Hungaroring.
The uncharacteristic low temperatures of yesterday's practice
sessions continued into Saturday, with an overcast sky and
cool conditions throughout the day. That has led all teams
to suffer problems with low grip due to tyre graining. Nevertheless
Toyota's drivers Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli both had
good afternoons of work, successfully making it through Q1
and Q2. In the final shoot-out Ralf recorded the 7th fastest
time while Jarno took 9th. They will rise to 6th and 8th on
the grid due to an engine penalty ahead of them. Toyota will
now work hard to build on this performance and come away with
a strong result in tomorrow's race.
Ralf Schumacher (Car 7, Chassis TF106/10B)
PROVISIONAL GRID: 6th
Free Practice Session 3: 15th, 13 laps completed
Lap Time: 1m23.963s (+3.168s)
Q1: 5th, 6 laps completed
Lap Time: 1m21.112s (+1.370s)
Q2: 9th, 6 laps completed
Lap Time: 1m20.243s (+0.739s)
Q3: 7th, 11 laps completed
Lap Time: 1m20.759s (+1.160s)
"Considering the difficult circumstances we can be pretty
pleased with what we achieved today. Everyone expected hotter
conditions for this race weekend and we have all had our problems
with it. The main problem with this cool weather is graining.
When the tyres are working under their normal temperature
range a rough surface develops which prevents the tyres from
having sufficient grip. The tyre basically "dissolves"
and you have a big grip problem. As a result you have either
understeer or oversteer. But the team did a great job and
it looks like we've chosen the right tyre so it's promising
for tomorrow. I have a good finishing record here and our
recent performances have shown that we are on the up so I
hope we can continue that trend in the race."
Jarno Trulli (Car 8, Chassis TF106/08B)
PROVISIONAL GRID: 8th
Free Practice Session 3: 19th, 16 laps completed
Lap Time: 1m25.373s (+4.578s)
Q1: 11th, 6 laps completed
Lap Time: 1m21.434s (+1.692s)
Q2: 8th, 6 laps completed
Lap Time: 1m20.231s (+0.727s)
Q3: 9th, 11 laps completed
Lap Time: 1m21.123s (+1.533s)
"This weekend has been difficult for everyone because
of the problems with tyre graining. Because it is so hard
to understand how best to use the tyres it has made it difficult
to set up the car so everything was a bit of a guess for me
today. Throughout the session I was missing out on general
grip and struggling with the balance. Still, we have done
well to make it into the top ten and now we have to look to
get the most out of tomorrow's race. In the past I've always
done well here in Hungary but missed out on results. Tomorrow
will be another hard race but at recent races we've been moving
up the grid in terms of our performance so we will try to
bring home a good result."
Pascal Vasselon – Senior General Manager Chassis
"Tyres are always an important factor but this time in
Budapest they are just overriding everything else. The cooler
conditions have a complex effect, bringing the compound into
a window where they tend to grain. The low temperature also
induces warming-up issues, making the tyres slide and leading
to huge graining, which is what we've seen in the last two
days. So in absolute terms we lack grip, but it is the same
for everyone and in relative terms we are not doing badly.
Qualifying went well with no major issues. So far it seems
we've tried to take a different approach from the other teams
and we are very pleased with the outcome of this qualifying.
We are in a good position and we are really looking forward
to tomorrow afternoon."
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