Canadian Grand Prix – Race Round-Up
BOILING POINTS
Panasonic Toyota Racing will leave Montreal with three points
after a spirited race from Jarno Trulli at today's Canadian
Grand Prix. On a sweltering day at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve,
Jarno started in 4th place on the grid and ran as high as
third for the first stint of the race. The Italian eventually
came home in 6th place for his first points finish of 2006.
It was a more difficult afternoon's work for Ralf Schumacher.
The German started in 14th place and struggled for grip for
much of the afternoon before the team retired his car shortly
before the end. Toyota will now begin the journey south to
Indianapolis for next weekend's US Grand Prix.
Jarno Trulli (Car 8, Chassis TF106/08B)
Race Classification: 6th
Gap: +1 lap (from race winner)
Qualifying Classification: 4th
Time: 1m15.968s (+1.026s in Session 3)
Grid: 4th
"I'm just delighted I have finally scored my first points
of the season at last! It was a great race in difficult conditions
and a great effort from the whole team and everyone at the
factory. We have been really pushing hard to improve the car
and we've definitely made a big step forward with our performance,
particularly since we brought the TF106B out. Unfortunately
the results just would not come because of one problem or
another so this is a great result for everyone. Even today
I had a misfire and we ran the engine in recovery mode for
the second half of the race. Nevertheless I pushed really
hard to the end because I just didn't want to lose those points.
Both the car and the Bridgestone tyres were really competitive.
We made it to the finish and I can finally celebrate getting
off the mark for 2006."
Ralf Schumacher (Car 7, Chassis TF106/07B)
Race Classification: DNF
Qualifying Classification: 14th
Time: 1m15.888s (+1.162s in Session 3)
Grid: 14th
"This was just never going to be my weekend. Today there
was no specific problem but I just couldn't find any grip
out there. It was my mistake because I went for the wrong
tyres. It was a gamble but it didn't pay off. It was a tough
race for everyone because there were so many marbles out on
the circuit every time I went on them with my hard tyres I'd
lose control of the car. In the end the inevitable happened
and we just had to retire the car. I'm disappointed because
it could have been a very good race for me. But at least Jarno
scored a few points and his pace showed that our car is going
much better. We just need to avoid mistakes. We will soon
be in Indianapolis so I hope we can do a better job there
and bring a good result home."
Tsutomu Tomita – Team Principal
"We're delighted that Jarno has finally scored his first
points of the year after narrowly missing out so often. P6
was our true place today because there were no retirements
at all from the top cars so we again confirmed that we have
the fourth best car on the grid. Jarno's strong start was
very good news for us because we've lost places off the line
in recent races. But the race still wasn't easy because we
had an engine misfire and it also required some careful management
of the tyres. We were expecting some graining and we had adapted
our strategy to cope with that. Unfortunately by the second
safety car he was already a lap back so he could not attack
the cars in front. Ralf had a very different race and he struggled
with a lack of grip throughout as did many cars in the heat
today. We tried to help his situation but in the end we decided
it was better to retire the car. We have to keep developing
the aerodynamics, suspension and engine as we push to get
closer to the very front."
|
