US Grand Prix – Qualifying Round-Up
’POLIS CHASE
Panasonic Toyota Racing approaches the United States Grand
Prix with confidence after Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli
qualified in the top 12 at a hot Indianapolis Motor Speedway
today. Track temperatures were around 54°C on a sunny
day at the home of American motorsport. As usual Q1 was a
frantic affair and the team watched expectedly as Ralf and
Jarno joined the rest of the grid in a last-minute scrap to
reach Q2. But Ralf produced a fine lap - his best of the weekend
so far - to progress easily in seventh with Jarno also making
it through. Second qualifying ended in similarly hectic fashion
but unfortunately this time only one Toyota, that of Jarno,
progressed. Ralf, after he and the team decided on a slight
front wing change, narrowly missed out and he starts from
the sixth row. Jarno performed strongly again in the top-10
shoot-out to claim eighth place and the team will now focus
on scoring more points in the race.
Jarno Trulli (Car 12, Chassis TF107/04) PROVISIONAL
GRID: 8th
Free Practice Session 3 11th Lap Time: 1m 13.057s (+0.907s)
Laps: 23
Q1 12th Lap Time: 1m 13.186s (+0.770s) Laps: 7
Q2 10th Lap Time: 1m 12.828s (+0.902s) Laps: 7
Q3 8th Lap Time: 1min 13.789s (+1.458s) Laps: 12
“It is great to be here in eighth on the grid and
to be honest I did not expect this. So I am very satisfied
with our day and I have to say thanks to everyone in the team
who have worked hard all weekend. We managed a smooth qualifying
session without any problems even though the times were very
tight and that made it hard. There wasn’t much grip
at the start of Q1 but the track improved. The car seemed
well balanced and it was quite quick so I was reasonably happy
with that. But we will have to wait and see how it feels over
long runs in the race tomorrow. I am happy with the result
today. It gives me a good chance to score more points so I
am quite optimistic for the race.”
Ralf Schumacher (Car 11, Chassis TF107/05) PROVISIONAL
GRID: 12th
Free Practice Session 3 12th Lap Time: 1m 13.061s (+0.911s)
Laps: 23
Q1 7th Lap Time: 1m 12.851s (+0.435s) Laps: 7
Q2 12th Lap Time: 1m 12.920s (+0.994s) Laps: 6
“The qualifying went pretty well actually. We were
just a bit unlucky that we missed out on the top 10 by less
than a 10th of a second. I had a little traffic on my first
run in Q1 but we got a clean lap at the end of the session.
Between the two sessions, we made a small change to the front
wing and the car was a little bit nervous on my last flying
lap in Q2. You can see we are getting closer to where we want
to be because today it was possible to get into the top 10.
That’s how it goes sometimes. But it is a long race
tomorrow and we can now adjust our complete race strategy,
which is a slight advantage. I would prefer to be starting
higher up the grid but in general qualifying wasn’t
so bad and I am now looking forward to tomorrow.”
Pascal Vasselon – Senior General Manager Chassis
“As with probably most of the teams we have been struggling
since yesterday with low grip but that is specific to Indianapolis.
In the end, with the evolution of the track conditions this
morning the situation came back to normal and we managed a
reasonable result. As the track is a short one, we were a
bit worried we might have traffic but for most of the session,
both our drivers did not suffer too much. Jarno obviously
did a very good job to qualify eighth and he should be in
a strong position for tomorrow’s race. Ralf did a great
job as well, particularly when he set the seventh fastest
time in Q1. Unfortunately he lost a couple of 10ths on his
last lap in Q2 when he had looked like reaching the top 10.
Overall it was a good performance from him. Now we will look
at our strategy and try to get the best out of the situation
for both drivers.”
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