European Grand Prix - Free Practice Round-Up
The hills of the Eifel are alive with the cheers and team
colours of Panasonic Toyota Racing. Over 600 employees and
supporters will be on hand over the weekend at the Grand Prix
of Europe to root for the home team. Preparations today concluded
with Ralf Schumacher finishing his planned programme, while
Jarno Trulli missed out on most of the two practice sessions
due to vibrations in the front end of his car.
150 AND STILL PUSHING
Ralf Schumacher celebrates his 150th Grand Prix at the Nürburgring,
where he has driven many kilometres and has fond memories.
Ralf Schumacher (Car 7, Chassis TF106/05)
First Session Classification: 9th, 6 lap completed
Lap Time: 1m34.995s (+2.916)
Second Session Classification: 6th, 19 laps completed
Lap Time: 1m33.883s (+1.208s)
"It was good to be back at the Nürburgring and
the weather here was surprisingly good considering how this
region is always so unpredictable. Overall, today's preparations
went relatively well. We finished our planned programme of
set-up and tyre work on my car. We are still searching for
grip and pushing to get more out of our package, and although
the tyre performance is improving, it is difficult to say
on Friday how the weekend will unfold."
HEADS UP
Having started the first four races with some set-backs, Jarno
Trulli looks forward to his 154th Grand Prix with his head
high, looking to improve on performance.
Jarno Trulli (Car 8, Chassis TF106/04)
First Session Classification: 19th, 1 lap completed
No lap time
Second Session Classification: 28th, 5 laps completed
No lap time
"This is like our home race because it is close to the
factory, so we have hopes to perform even better because we
have a lot of supporters and employees cheering us on. The
practice sessions today turned out to be quite difficult because
we had some issues with my car and therefore I could only
complete a few laps. We could not solve the problem during
practice in time for me to go out and do some meaningful running,
but the team will take the car apart completely to find the
source of this concern."
GOING INTO DETAIL
A troublesome encounter with vibrations in both cars challenged
the Panasonic Toyota Racing team during today's practice sessions
at the Nürburgring.
Dieter Gass - Chief Engineer Race and Test
"Unfortunately it was a difficult day for us as we had
some vibrations on both cars in the first session, and the
vibrations resumed on Jarno's car in the afternoon. We changed
a lot of items on the car, yet the vibrations were still present.
We will have to evaluate this issue even further in detail
in preparation for tomorrow. This makes our tyre choice particularly
difficult, which is already challenging at this track. Although
Ralf finished his entire programme, we hope to gain better
information during tomorrow's practice session before heading
into qualifying."
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