Hungarian Grand Prix – Race Round-Up
THREE-SY DOES IT
Panasonic Toyota Racing leaves Budapest with three points
after Ralf Schumacher scored his best result of the season
in the Hungarian Grand Prix. Ralf drove a fine race to claim
6th place, with Jarno Trulli finishing 10th. After the team’s
best qualifying result of the season – and penalties
for other drivers – both drivers started in the top
eight, with Ralf in a season-high 5th. He made a clean start
and was battling for 4th before ending the opening lap in
5th, however Jarno lost several positions and dropped to 12th.
Ralf fought hard to retain his position and made his first
pit stop on lap 18 while Jarno’s first visit to the
pits came three laps later. Tyre strategy came into play in
the second half of the race and Ralf pitted for super soft
Bridgestone Potentza tyres on lap 48, with Jarno doing likewise
on lap 51. The team’s two-stop strategy paid off and
Ralf was in the fight for 4th place before traffic cost him
time and he finished a strong 6th. Formula 1 now enjoys its
traditional summer break but the team will be working as hard
as ever to prepare for the next race, the Turkish Grand Prix
on August 26.
Ralf Schumacher (Car 11, Chassis TF107/05)
Race Classification: 6th Tyres Used: Soft, Soft, Super Soft
Qualifying Classification: 6th Time: 1m 20.714s (+1.040s
in Q3) Grid: 5th
“The race was great. I made a strong start and was
fighting for fourth place in the first few corners. The car
was really good, at the beginning it was a bit nervous but
we made some front flap adjustments and then it was okay.
After the first pit stops we started to see different strategies
from some of the teams. We went with a two-stopper and I think
we made the right decision. It was a shame we lost quite a
bit of time coming up behind Heidfeld later in the race but
still three points is good for the team. We need them and
now we are looking good for the rest of the season. It’s
my best result of the season so I am happy.”
Jarno Trulli (Car 12, Chassis TF107/06)
Race Classification: 10th Tyres Used: Soft, Soft, Super Soft
Qualifying Classification: 9th Time: 1m 21.206s (+1.532s
in Q3) Grid: 8th
“That was a disappointing race because we had looked
competitive this weekend. It was very difficult for me after
the start because again it was bad. I lost a lot of positions
and from there I couldn’t really do anything because
it is so hard to overtake on this circuit. I was just stuck
in traffic. We tried to make up some positions with our strategy
and when I was in clear air my lap times improved so I moved
up a bit. However, you cannot do too much on this track. The
final stint was quite difficult on the option tyre but at
that stage there was not much we could do to improve our position.
We have work to do before the next race.”
Tadashi Yamashina – Team Principal
“Today we had a very solid race and Ralf was able to
score points, which is good. Ideally we hoped for a better
result because we had a good race pace here. Next time we
will push for that. I was a little disappointed with the result
for Jarno and we will analyse what the reasons are for his
problem at the start. We will try to improve. What made the
race especially interesting was the tyre strategy. We were
flexible between two or three stops and we had enough evidence
from the first part of the race that the two stop would be
better and Ralf almost got past the BMWs with that but he
got held up behind Heidfeld. It was very interesting from
a strategy point of view and we got it right. Today the whole
team worked well and I am very proud of our pit crew’s
performance. They trained a lot this weekend and I am very
satisfied.“
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