Canadian Grand Prix – Race Round-Up
ISLAND STRIFE
Panasonic Toyota Racing will leave Montreal with a single
point courtesy of Ralf Schumacher following a dramatic Canadian
Grand Prix that featured a total of four safety car periods.
Ralf started in 18th place with a heavy fuel load. Following
the first two interruptions for the safety car he was the
last driver to pit on lap 39 by which time he was running
as high as 3rd. By the time the race order settled down he
took the flag in 8th. Jarno Trulli lined up 10th on the grid
and kept that position for much of the first stint. Then he
was hit from behind by Robert Kubica’s BMW, an incident
that led to a severe impact and led to one of the safety car
periods. Jarno suffered some damage to his right rear tyre
and he was forced to pit. He came in again after just one
lap on the option tyre. During the rest of the interrupted
race he ran as high as 6th but he spun out on lap 58, just
after his last scheduled pit stop. The Toyota team will now
travel to Indianapolis for next week’s US Grand Prix.
The team also bids farewell to Tsutomu Tomita who attended
his last race as Team Principal today before he takes over
as Chairman of the Fuji Speedway.
Ralf Schumacher (Car 11, Chassis TF107/05)
Race Classification 8th Gap: +22.8s Tyre Strategy: Hard Hard
Soft
Qualifying Classification 18th Time: 1m 17.634s (+1.166s
in Q1) Grid: 18th
“That was another difficult weekend for me but of course
it is nice to get a point after starting from 18th position.
I’m sure no one expected that but it was a chaotic race.
Today given our grid position we fuelled up the cars heavily
for the first stint. The car was not too bad and we were able
to make up ground but we were short of straight line speed
so it made it hard to overtake into the chicane. Towards the
end I was overtaken by Sato who was on the prime tyre when
I was on the options. That was clearly the worse tyre today
but the rules mean we have to run on it. We obviously have
a lot of work ahead of us but at least we got a point today.”
Jarno Trulli (Car 12, Chassis TF107/06)
Race Classification DNF Tyre Strategy: Hard Hard Soft Hard
Hard
Qualifying Classification 10th Time: 1m 17.747s (+2.040s in
Q3) Grid: 10th
“That was a very difficult race for me. The start was
reasonable but I was short of grip and I could not keep up
with the pace, especially towards the end of the stint. After
we pitted for new tyres during the first safety car period
Robert Kubica hit me from behind and crashed. I had not moved
from my line but when I saw the car roll over I was very concerned.
When you see another colleague have such a big crash and you
are hit from the back it’s not a nice feeling. At that
stage a lot of things were going on in my mind but I have
since heard that he’s fine so I hope that he will get
back soon. I had a flat tyre so I had to pit again but then
I wasn’t exactly sure where I was in the race. Eventually
when I pitted for the last time I was caught by surprise and
when I came back out in last place I pushed too hard to catch
the field and went into the wall. But after a day like this
the race doesn’t matter.”
Tsutomu Tomita – Team Principal
“That was easily the wildest grand prix of the year
and crashes and safety cars dominated the racing action. We
used our safety car strategies but we ended up with very different
stories for our two cars. Considering he started from 18th
on the grid Ralf did a very good job. He was fuelled very
heavy but he saved the tyres for the first part of the race.
He was able to make up a lot of ground with the safety cars,
although the last one cost us some places. Like others, he
was on the option tyre at the end of the race and struggled
for pace. Jarno had some difficulties with grip during his
first stint and then he had a flat tyre after the incident
with Kubica. In the end things didn’t work out for him.
Clearly we have not had the best performance this weekend
and we have work to do. But we managed the suspension problem
we had on Friday and I’m happy that we had no mechanical
issues today. The point is a good leaving present for me and
I wish the team all the best and good luck for the future.
See you at the Fuji Speedway.”
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