Spanish Grand Prix – Race Round-Up
Sunday 13 May 2007
CATALA-STROPHE
Panasonic Toyota Racing will leave Barcelona licking its
wounds after a desperately disappointing Spanish Grand Prix
at the Circuit de Catalunya. The race took place in perfect
conditions with track temperatures around 50° Celsius
as it has been all weekend. Jarno Trulli’s fine qualifying
performance yesterday earned him 6th place on the grid. Unfortunately
he suffered a fuel pressure problem as the drivers lined up
for the first start and he was forced to take the restart
from the pit lane. He lasted only eight laps before the problem
became terminal. Ralf Schumacher’s day also began in
the worst way when he was hit from behind by Alexander Wurz’s
Williams on lap 1. After a pit stop to check for damage he
rejoined over a minute down. He then raced hard despite missing
top speed with a damaged rear wing. Unfortunately he retired
20 laps from home when the nose cone worked loose. Toyota
is scheduled to test this week at the Paul Ricard circuit
in France in preparation for the Monaco Grand Prix on May
27. The team will head to the principality looking for a turnaround
in its fortunes.
Ralf Schumacher (Car 11, Chassis TF107/05)
Race Classification DNF Tyres Used: Soft Soft
Qualifying Classification 17th Time: 1m 22.666s (+1.546s
in Q1) Grid: 17th
“That was another difficult weekend for me. The start
itself was okay and I made up a couple of places. It was a
bit messy but from where I was on the grid that is to be expected.
There was a bit of chaos at turn 10 when I was hit from behind
but that’s the way it goes sometimes. I had to pit to
check for damage but we were able to continue. From there
the race was quite good and at least we were able to keep
up a strong pace. Unfortunately the nose then worked loose
and I had to retire. Our car has improved but we were far
away from where we should have been today so we will have
to keep working hard.”
Jarno Trulli (Car 12, Chassis TF107/04)
Race Classification DNF Tyres Used: Soft
Qualifying Classification 6th Time: 1m 22.324s (+0.903s in
Q3) Grid: 6th
“This was one of those days. Unfortunately at the end
of the parade lap while I was heading to the grid to take
the start, the engine cut out due to a problem with the fuel
pressure. That meant we had to take the restart from the pit
lane. We managed to get the engine going again using higher
revs and then we were able to put in a few laps that looked
pretty good. But in the end the problem was too severe to
continue further and we had to retire. This is the kind of
thing that can happen in motor racing but it was a pity because
we qualified well and we were in a good position to fight
today. We have made a step forward this weekend but this is
the first time we have missed the points this year. Now we
have to keep pushing hard to improve both our performance
and our reliability.”
Tsutomu Tomita – Team Principal
“It’s obviously disappointing that neither of
our cars finished today. Jarno did very well in qualifying
but before the start of today’s race he had a problem
with his fuel line. That made his fuel pressure unstable and
meant his engine was not working properly. Ralf made a good
start and made up ground before he was hit from behind by
Alexander Wurz. He had to pit in to check the car and from
there he had good race pace considering the rear left endplate
was damaged and he was therefore losing top speed. Then he
had to stop due to a problem that was an indirect consequence
of his crash. After over 40 laps his nose worked loose and
we now have to investigate why that happened. The only thing
we can say about today is at least the problems all came at
the same time, which is very efficient! On a positive note
we were pleased to discover we were on similar strategies
to the top cars so Jarno’s qualifying performance was
encouraging. We head to Monaco with a further upgrade on the
car so we hope for a more successful weekend there.”
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