Turkish Grand Prix – Race Round-Up
NO TURKISH DELIGHT
Panasonic Toyota Racing suffered a disappointing result in
the Turkish Grand Prix with Ralf Schumacher finishing 12th
and Jarno Trulli 16th at Istanbul Park. Jarno’s good
qualifying effort gave him 9th on the grid but Ralf had it
all to do from 16th. Jarno’s race soon became much more
difficult when he was nudged into a spin by Giancarlo Fisichella
at turn one, dropping him to the back of the field. However,
he fought hard to recover ground and made up five places in
six laps before getting caught in traffic prior to his first
pit stop on lap 20. Ralf was also involved in a tight battle
in the midfield, although his one-stop strategy meant he had
a fuel-heavy car for the first half of the race. He made his
one and only stop on lap 32 to switch to the medium compound
Bridgestone Potenza tyres. With Jarno, the team opted for
two stops and he took on more fuel and medium tyres on lap
44. Both drivers continued to push and Jarno made up a further
place before the chequered flag. The team is in action again
immediately with a three-day test in Monza, starting on Tuesday,
where preparations will begin for the low-downforce demands
of the Italian Grand Prix.
Ralf Schumacher (Car 11, Chassis TF107/05)
Race Classification: 12th Tyres Used: Hard, medium
Qualifying Classification: 18th Time: 1m 28.809s (+1.515s)
Grid: 16th
“I am not really happy with the result. I think we
had the speed, but I couldn't really push early in the race
and the car was not ideal with the hard tyres, so I lost a
bit of time. Also, because I was on a one-stop strategy my
car was very heavy and that made it hard to push earlier in
the race. But it was the right strategy as it was very difficult
from where we were on the grid. As we have seen on Friday,
we have decent race speed and when I was in clear air my pace
was not so bad in the end. My lap times got better towards
the end of the race and they were actually quite good. If
our result in qualifying had been better we would have been
able to score points. We can definitely expect to fight for
points in the remaining races, starting at Monza in two weeks.”
Jarno Trulli (Car 12, Chassis TF107/04)
Race Classification: 16th Tyres Used: Hard, hard, medium
Qualifying Classification: 9th Time: 1m 28.740s (+1.411s)
Grid: 9th
“We had the opportunity to get a better result but
that is racing. It was a shame because the car was well balanced
throughout the race and this is thanks to the hard work back
at the factory. There was no clear lap for me to show my potential
but the feeling of the car was good. The start went well but
unfortunately at the first corner Fisichella hit me at the
back and I lost a lot of positions. These things can happen.
After that I overtook many cars and I had a lot of battles
but when you end up at the back it is so difficult to catch
up. With our strategy we were hoping to challenge for points
but after the first lap that was clearly not possible. Now
I will try to forget this race and focus on my home race in
Monza. I enjoy racing in Italy so I hope we can get a better
result there.”
Tadashi Yamashina – Team Principal
“We expected a much better result this weekend because
we had some new parts on the car thanks to the hard work of
the team at the factory. The weekend started quite well and
should have finished quite well. Our cars spent most of the
race in traffic. With Ralf, due to his starting position,
we went to a one-stop strategy and this was the decision we
had to take in order to gain some positions. It worked to
an extent but Ralf was stuck behind slower cars for too long
at the start of the race. For Jarno you can see what happened,
he got hit by Fisichella and that was it – he went to
the back of the field and stayed stuck in traffic. He had
almost no laps in free air. In these hot conditions both drivers
got to the end of the race and that is the only thing we are
happy about. We must analyse what happened over the weekend.
For the next race, at Monza, we will push hard again and hope
for a better result.”
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