Brazilian Grand Prix – Free Practice Round-Up
LEAVING PRESENTLY
Panasonic Toyota Racing today kicked off its preparations
for the last race of the 2007 F1 season with a busy day’s
work at the Interlagos circuit. This race weekend Toyota will
bid farewell to Ralf Schumacher and third driver Franck Montagny
so there is a determination to come away with a strong result
as thanks for their services to the team. Following overnight
showers in Sao Paulo the morning began in damp, grey conditions
with further rain for much of the first session. The track
dried out during the afternoon and both Ralf and Jarno Trulli
had busy days of running, ending the afternoon 11th and 16th
fastest respectively. Toyota has already taken part in one
sporting contest this week as the team’s mechanics took
third place in the annual Petrobras football tournament, including
a memorable 6-3 win over F1 title contenders McLaren. Now
the engineers will look to build on today’s solid start
as they look to finish the year on a positive note and give
Ralf and Franck the best possible send-off.
Ralf Schumacher (Car 11, Chassis TF107/05)
First Session 6th 22 laps completed Lap Time: 1m 21.243s (+1.663s)
Second Session 11th 29 laps completed Lap Time: 1m 13.834s
(+1.062s)
“It was an exciting day of practice because we had every
kind of track condition, starting off wet and then ending
up dry. But everything went well today so we can be happy
with what we have achieved. The organisers have done a really
good job with the new tarmac – it’s very smooth
and there are no more bumps. This is my last race for Toyota
and I’m pushing as hard as I can for a decent result
both for myself and for the team. We were competitive at the
last race and even though we didn’t finish it was enjoyable.
So we can hope for more of the same here and aim to finish
off the season on a high note.”
Jarno Trulli (Car 12, Chassis TF107/04)
First Session 9th 26 laps completed Lap Time: 1m 22.104s (+2.524s)
Second Session 16th 25 laps completed Lap Time: 1m 14.234s
(+1.467s)
“From the start of the first session the car wasn’t
as I wanted it so that was a difficult day for me. We will
have to look into why that is because it seems we have a few
problems. It is not really a question of balance but it is
more that we haven’t been able to make the tyres work
properly. So it has not been a particularly good day. The
new track surface is very good so they have done a good job.
The bumps which were always a problem at this track in the
past have been removed and it is a big improvement. It’s
been a long time since my last result so I am determined to
go home happy on Sunday. For that we need to score some points.”
Dieter Gass – Chief Engineer Race and Test
“That was quite a difficult Friday today because of
the weather. With the new tarmac we would love to have had
two dry sessions to be able to assess the tyre behaviour.
But with less than one session of dry running we had to try
and squeeze everything into one hour, which was impossible.
So we ran different programmes on the two cars, trying to
maximise the information we could collect. We now obviously
need to look into the data and decide what we’re going
to do for tomorrow. The new tarmac has significantly reduced
the bumps but it is still difficult to say how the tyre behaviour
will change over the weekend. We are expecting dry weather
and now we must work hard for qualifying and the race.”
|
