Monaco Grand Prix – Race Round-Up
HOPELESSLY DEVOTED
Panasonic Toyota Racing will come away from today's Monaco
Grand Prix with a solitary point after a battling drive to
8th place from Ralf Schumacher on a one-stop strategy. But
it was a day of heartbreak for Jarno Trulli, who came within
five laps of making the podium after an inspired day's work
around the streets of the principality. The Italian made the
most of a similar strategy to power his way up to 3rd place
before he succumbed to a hydraulic failure, coasting to a
halt on the way up the hill from Ste Devote. Toyota is scheduled
to continue testing its new TF106B package at Barcelona this
week in preparation for next month's British Grand Prix.
Ralf Schumacher (Car 7, Chassis TF106/07B)
Race Classification: 8th
Gap: +1 lap (from race winner)
Qualifying Classification: 11th
Time: 1m14.398s (+0.866s in Session 2)
Grid: 10th
"To come away with a point is something, but it could
have been so much more for Toyota today. We lost too many
places at the start and I spent the first half of the race
behind Heidfeld. We were quicker but as usual here it was
impossible to overtake and our strategy did not allow us to
break out of the traffic. That put paid to our chances of
getting a better result. Still, the car went well and I kept
pushing and we ended the race in the final points-scoring
position. It was a hard day's work out there but at least
we have shown stronger pace this weekend and we must now look
to build on that in the coming races."
Jarno Trulli (Car 8, Chassis TF106/08B)
Race Classification: DNF
Qualifying Classification: 8th
Time: 1m15.857s (+1.959s in Session 3)
Grid: 6th
"Once again it's a tale of woe for me! It's frustrating
because I am giving my best, doing everything I can in qualifying
and the race and yet things are just not going right for me.
Our pace was good today and the tyres were consistent. I could
have gone quicker but I spent most of the afternoon in traffic
so I never had a clear lap to really push. When I came into
the pits with Barrichello I could tell that he had forgotten
to hit the pit limiter. At the end I was just bringing the
car home and everything was under control until the sudden
hydraulic problem. It's obviously a pity to miss out on a
podium here for the second year in a row. But at least we
showed better pace at times and we must now build on that.
I still believe that the team is doing a good job and working
really hard but there is still work to do."
Tsutomu Tomita – Team Principal
"We have to be pleased about getting a point from Ralf,
who battled hard throughout the race. But to say we are disappointed
about what happened to Jarno is an understatement. He had
raced hard from the start in heavy traffic and for him to
suffer a hydraulic problem so close to the flag was a cruel
blow. So it was a bitter finish, but at least we can say that
the team performed better over the course of the weekend.
It was a correct decision to go for a one-stop strategy and
it worked well. We will have to investigate our poor starts
but at least our pace was good on the heavy tanks. We brought
Ralf in earlier than we had to because he was stuck behind
Heidfeld, who we expected so stay out longer. Unfortunately
they both came in at the same time but it was the only thing
we could try. Jarno similarly spent most of his race behind
Barrichello so we can only congratulate the drivers on doing
such a good job today. It was a bad day for us in terms of
the race results but the gap to the top teams is closing and
we will continue developing and fighting in order to achieve
a podium as soon as possible."
|
