British Grand Prix – Free Practice Round-Up
A LITTLE GREY SELLS
After the near-tropical conditions of last year’s British
Grand Prix, Silverstone today reverted to type. As Panasonic
Toyota Racing took to the track for the first practice sessions
of the weekend, Britain’s motor racing home offered
a more traditional welcome with a mix of cold, strong winds
and the greyest of grey skies. Crowds are nevertheless expected
in force for the weekend, offering a timely boost to the nation’s
cagoule traders. For Toyota, Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher
had a successful day’s work. The track stayed dry throughout
the morning but the afternoon was interrupted by a brief shower
midway through the session. Ralf ended the second session
with the 3rd fastest time with Jarno 5th. The team will now
look to build on this positive start as it prepares for qualifying
and Sunday’s race.
Ralf Schumacher (Car 11, Chassis TF107/05)
First Session 9th 21 laps completed Lap Time: 1m 22.878s
(+1.778s)
Second Session 3rd 34 laps completed Lap Time: 1m 21.381s
(+0.742s)
“Our day went well. Both sessions were positive and
we had no technical problems so we are quite happy with what
we have achieved so far. The wind was strong both in the morning
and the afternoon so that made it difficult to make accurate
comparisons. But we made it through everything that we had
planned so it sets us up well for the rest of the weekend.
We were quite quick in the afternoon but let’s wait
and see how we fare tomorrow. We might be lucky with the weather
and if it rains then anything can happen. But for now we should
aim to qualify both cars in the top ten and then take it from
there.”
Jarno Trulli (Car 12, Chassis TF107/06)
First Session 11th 27 laps completed Lap Time: 1m 23.030s
(+1.930s)
Second Session 5th 35 laps completed Lap Time: 1m 21.467s
(+0.828s)
“This is always an interesting weekend because you
have to keep a close eye on the weather which can change very
quickly. You can never expect consistent conditions and it’s
fair to say we have seen typical English weather so far. That
has a major influence on the performance of the car. Even
when it’s not raining the wind can be strong around
here and that affects work on set-up. For that reason we concentrated
on testing the two compounds of tyres, which went well. We
set some encouraging lap times and our package seems to work
quite well on this type of circuit because we were competitive
in the test here two weeks ago. So things are looking positive
for tomorrow and we should hope for a good race.”
Dieter Gass – Chief Engineer Race and Test
“We had a very good test here a fortnight ago and it
seems that we have been able to keep up the momentum. The
car wasn’t easy to drive today because of the wind in
both the sessions. So both drivers were complaining that it
was very difficult to get results out of the changes we made
to the set-up. Nevertheless we have collected a lot of information
today, especially on the tyres. We had a completely trouble-free
day of running and we were able to gather everything that
we wanted. We looked quite strong in the afternoon session
so I hope we can build on this for a positive weekend.”
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