Belgian Grand Prix – Qualifying Round-Up
MOVING ON UP
Panasonic Toyota Racing approaches the Belgian Grand Prix
with optimism after both Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher
qualified in the top half of the grid at Spa-Francorchamps
today. After strong practice form, the team was optimistic
of a good showing in qualifying and Jarno will start 8th with
Ralf 11th. On the longest circuit in Formula 1 and with a
track temperature of 28°C, both Ralf and Jarno comfortably
progressed through Q1 with their final flying laps. But Q2
saw only the Toyota of Jarno make it through, with Ralf setting
the 12th fastest time, although he moves up one spot on the
grid after a 10-place penalty for a competitor. Jarno set
the 9th fastest time in Q3 despite some traffic on his final
flying lap and he starts from 8th. The team now focuses on
tomorrow’s 44-lap race and it will push hard to get
the best possible result, with the aim of scoring more points.
Jarno Trulli (Car 12, Chassis TF107/04)
PROVISIONAL GRID: 8th
Free Practice Session 3 6th Lap Time: 1m 47.218s (+1.081s)
Laps: 11
Q1 10th Lap Time: 1m 47.143s (+1.085s) Laps: 6
Q2 10th Lap Time: 1m 46.480s (+1.410s) Laps: 6
Q3 9th Lap Time: 1m 47.798s (+1.804s) Laps: 9
“I am reasonably happy with today’s result. Again
we have done quite a good job to get into the top 10 and thanks
to the team so far it has been a smooth weekend, with no problems
on the car. Starting from 8th place is not bad - it is a good
place from which to fight in the race tomorrow. It is always
difficult to overtake in Formula 1 but I will give my all
to make up some positions. I believe we have quite a good
strategy for the race, looking at what happened in Q3, so
I am pretty confident. Obviously my aim is to bounce back
into the points at the best circuit in the world, and I will
do my best. I just hope we can get everything right from the
start to the end of the race.”
Ralf Schumacher (Car 11, Chassis TF107/05)
PROVISIONAL GRID: 11th
Free Practice Session 3 9th Lap Time: 1m 47.454s (+1.317s)
Laps: 19
Q1 12th Lap Time: 1m 47.300s (+1.242s) Laps: 6
Q2 12th Lap Time: 1m 46.618s (+1.548s) Laps: 5
“It is frustrating not to get into the top 10 because
I think we had the pace to do it. Practice went well and we
were hopeful of a good result in qualifying. I think we were
looking good but unfortunately on my last run in Q2 the out
lap didn’t go as planned and I could not warm my tyres
and brakes as much as I would have liked, so I had some understeer.
That was it really for me. But I believe the car is strong
and we have the potential to fight for points tomorrow. Obviously
it will be easier for Jarno as he is starting in the top 10
but I will try my best from where I am on the grid and we
will see what we can do.”
Pascal Vasselon – Senior General Manager Chassis
“That was an average qualifying result for us. Jarno
made it to the top 10 but we were expecting a better result
overall after our performances in practice. Jarno did a good
job in Q1 and Q2 but on his last lap he had some traffic and
that affected his time. From Ralf’s side, he did well
in Q1 but in Q2 he had warm-up issues and his lap time was
compromised by too much understeer. Otherwise, our preparation
has gone well and in terms of the strategy and tyre choices
we had to make, they were reasonably straightforward. The
option tyres behaved exactly in line with what we saw at the
test session here so there were no surprises there. For the
race, considering our starting positions, scoring points is
the obvious target.”
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