02/03/2002

Mission accomplished in Melbourne

Qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix proved a bit uncertain for the Panasonic Toyota Racing Team following a mid-session downpour that flooded the track. But both Toyota TF102s qualified easily for tomorrow's race thereby achieving the team's first aim of the weekend.

"I think we have done a respectable job for our first qualifying session " said Team President Ove Andersson. "The session was cut short due to the rain which we have to live with but our objective was to qualify and we have achieved our aim without any problem."

Mika Salo and Allan McNish both drove just one timed lap before the rain arrived. The plan was then to change the set-ups on their TF102s prior to improving their times but the chance never came. Despite this Mika qualified 14th with Allan just two places back in 16th.

"I think I could have improved my time by up to one second had the session remained dry " says Mika. "But we shouldn't be disappointed. Again we made no mistakes and this has been a good first session for the team. We should be happy." As things stand a one-second improvement would have moved Mika into the top 10 overall.

Allan had a similar story to tell other than his first lap was 0.4-seconds slower than that of Mika. The 32-year-old Scot had just ventured onto the track to begin his second run when the rain began to fall.

"I wanted to get in a lap at the beginning of the session " says Allan "and we got a good base. Unfortunately the rain came and that was that. But I'm not disappointed; we should all be happy with our first venture into F1."

Even prior to the rain this had been a disjointed qualifying session. After four minutes it was red-flagged to retrieve a retired car which gave the entire grid just 15 minutes of dry running in which to qualify. To this end the team did a calm thorough and professional job.