United States Grand Prix
SEVEN UP
Panasonic Toyota Racing came away from the United States
Grand Prix with three points after a fine performance by Jarno
Trulli and the team delivered his best result of the season
with sixth place at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. On another
sunny day, with track temperatures at 50°C and air temperature
at 35°C, Jarno made a strong start and moved up to seventh
in the scramble for the first turn. Unfortunately, Ralf Schumacher’s
race ended at the first corner when he was involved in a collision
with David Coulthard. Ralf’s car suffered damage to
the front left suspension and he was unable to rejoin. Jarno
was able to pull away from the chasing pack at a steady rate
during his first stint and he made his first pit stop on lap
31. His next stop came on lap 56 and he battled hard to pass
Mark Webber before defending his position until the chequered
flag to take three points, making it seven for the season
for him and nine for Toyota. The team will now focus on scoring
another positive result in the French Grand Prix, with preparations
beginning on Tuesday with the start of a three-day test at
Silverstone.
Ralf Schumacher (Car 11, Chassis TF107/05)
Race Classification DNF Tyre Strategy: Soft
Qualifying Classification 12th Time: 1m 12.920s (+0.994 in
Q2) Grid: 12th
“That was a disappointing way to end my race after
a pretty good qualifying. Obviously going into the first corner
it was very crowded and everyone is on cold tyres. Going into
the first corner I braked quite calmly but my tyres locked
a bit. David came around from the outside and we crashed into
each other. I think it was a racing incident. It is disappointing
but these things can happen easily in that kind of situation
at the start of a race when everyone is trying to gain positions.
It is unfortunate and a bit unlucky for us because we could
have had a good race. I will be testing at Silverstone on
Tuesday so now I fly directly to England to prepare for the
French Grand Prix, where I hope for a better result.”
Jarno Trulli (Car 12, Chassis TF107/06)
Race Classification 6th Gap: +1min 6.7s Tyre Strategy: Soft
Soft Medium
Qualifying Classification 8th Time: 1min 13.789s (+1.458s
in Q3) Grid: 8th
“It is incredible - I can’t believe I have finished
in the points today. Despite all the effort we put in I thought
it would be hard to get in the points but the team has done
an incredible job. We haven’t got anything wrong and
we got sixth which for us is like a victory today. It is an
unexpected result to be honest because before the race I never
expected such a good performance from me or from the car so
I am really pleased. Mentally it was a very hard race because
I was on the limit for the whole race. I was fighting with
Webber and I did not think I would come out ahead but in the
end I managed it. It took a lot of fight. I really enjoyed
it but after a very good manoeuvre when I overtook him following
the second pit stop I thought I was going to lose the position.
When I finished the race I asked more than once ‘are
you sure I finished sixth?’ because I couldn’t
believe it! In the last four races we have had a few problems
but this shows when we get it right we can battle for points.”
Tadashi Yamashina – Vice Chairman
“To finish in sixth place in the last race of Tsutomu
Tomita’s era as Chairman and Team Principal before he
leaves at the end of June is fantastic. I am ecstatic. Jarno
drove a fantastic race but the result is also due to a great
job from the all the team. What happened to Ralf can’t
be helped but we expect he will have a better result in the
next race. It was just a normal incident at the start of a
race. It was a weekend which was quite difficult at the start
because of the low grip we experienced but this is a good
result. It was quite an interesting race. Jarno did a very
good job in the race because he was fighting at the end with
Mark Webber, who was a little bit faster on top speed but
a bit slower in the infield. Our strategy in Q3 yesterday
paid off for Jarno because we went quite long on the first
stint and that helped him to stay in front of Webber. We had
absolutely no technical problems on the car all through the
weekend and that is of course good news. Now we will aim to
build on this result at the next race in France.”
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