Monaco Grand Prix – Race Round-Up
DOUBLE TROUBLE
Panasonic Toyota Racing endured a frustrating Monaco Grand
Prix as Jarno Trulli took the chequered flag in 15th position,
one place and 0.9 seconds ahead of team-mate Ralf Schumacher
after a race to forget for the team. A difficult qualifying
session left Jarno in 14th and Ralf in 20th on the grid, giving
both drivers an uphill task in the 78-lap race. That task
became harder when they lost ground at the start on the run
into St Devote, with Ralf dropping to 22nd and Jarno to 18th.
However, Jarno was overtaken illegally by Takuma Sato in the
hectic first corner and took back that position soon after.
As is traditional at Monaco, traffic proved to be a problem
and both drivers found it difficult to improve their positions
despite setting some competitive lap times in clean air. The
team opted for one-stop strategies and Jarno was first into
the pits on lap 47 to switch to the super soft Bridgestones,
with Ralf following suit two laps later before a clean run
to the chequered flag. Toyota’s next engagement is the
Canadian Grand Prix in two weeks for the first race of a North
American double-header.
Jarno Trulli (Car 12, Chassis TF107/04)
Race Classification: 15th Tyres Used: Soft, Super Soft
Qualifying Classification: 14th Time: 1m 16.988s (+1.577s
in Q2) Grid: 14th
“At the start of the race the car almost stalled. I
had to do a good job to pick up the clutch and start the race.
I lost a lot of positions at the first corner so from the
very start I was just keeping up with the cars in front of
me and then the brakes started heating up as they did in qualifying.
I had to slow down a bit and the only thing I could do from
there was bring the car to the end of the race. It was a difficult
race for me and now we have to work hard before the next race
and make some improvements.”
Ralf Schumacher (Car 11, Chassis TF107/05)
Race Classification: 16th Tyres Used: Soft, Super Soft
Qualifying Classification: 20th Time: 1m 18.539s (+2.854s
in Q1) Grid: 20th
“It was just stuck in traffic in the first laps. That
made the race very difficult from then on. The pace was not
too bad when you compare it with the others when I was on
a clear track. I lost a lot of time stuck in that position
as you could see from my lap times when I had a clear track
in front of me. The balance was actually quite okay later
on and I was able to push a bit harder. We could clearly have
been fighting for points today for sure if we had qualified
better. Qualifying was really where our race was decided but
I will try hard to get that right and hope for better next
time.”
Tsutomu Tomita – Team Principal
“To be honest before coming to Monaco we had very
strong confidence about our competitiveness and on Thursday
we were actually competitive. I thought it was very promising
for the race but on Saturday in practice we were struggling
and in the afternoon in qualifying it was a bit of a disaster
for us honestly. We lost many, many positions to slip to 14th
and 20th. From then we could do nothing about the race. Jarno’s
race was over really very quickly when the engine almost stalled
at the start and he was passed by many cars. Ralf also got
passed by a few cars at the start and it is just impossible
to overtake here. Therefore from this point of view the two
drivers fought very well today but we could do nothing. The
very important thing to learn right now is to bring the best
performance of the car to the race and we will challenge again
to do that in Canada.”
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