28/04/2002

Spanish Grand Prix Race Report

Panasonic Toyota Racing had an encouraging Spanish Grand Prix with Allan McNish finishing the race in 8th place with Mika Salo 9th.

At a Barcelona circuit that is hard on cars engines and transmissions the team showed impressive reliability and chief designer Gustav Brunner reported a trouble-free afternoon except for a puncture to the left rear tyre on Salo's car early in the race.

"I think both drivers did a very good job and our lap times were pretty good all the way through Brunner said. We were more competitive today than in qualifying yesterday. Performance-wise we need to be half a second quicker to be in the running for more points. But the reliability was good again and what does Toyota stand for? Quality and reliability.

"We have shown today that the reliability of the TF102s is very good said technical co-ordinator Keizo Takahashi. We are very happy with a two-car finish in 8th and 9th position. The next race in Austria at a track we know. We will make some more developments on the car during this week's test in Estoril and in Austria we will aim to once again challenge for two top ten finishes."

Allan McNish was delighted to see his second chequered flag of the season and said: "Considering the starting position it was a good race for us. The best thing is that we had a two-car finish and that experience will be very good for the team."

Salo added: "I am reasonably happy even though I had an unscheduled pit stop due to the puncture. The car was fine all race and there were no problems. The testing work we did at Mugello last week was useful here but I didn't get the benefit of it in qualifying obviously. In the race though I was doing lap times not far away from the top teams and some of the other front-runners." In fact Salo set the seventh fastest lap of the race!

Spain produced the fourth win in five starts for world champion Michael Schumacher and Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro. Juan Pablo Montoya finished second for BMW Williams. David Coulthard finished third for West McLaren Mercedes while Nick Heidfeld and Felipe Massa made it a happy afternoon for Sauber Petronas by finishing fourth and fifth. Massa finished with Heinz-Harald Frentzen right behind him scoring the first point of the season for Orange Arrows

Panasonic Toyota Racing president Ove Andersson said: "To get both cars to the end of the race in 8th and 9th is wonderful. It goes to show that to get a result you have to finish and we did that. There were no major technical problems and I am very pleased for the whole team who have worked so hard all weekend."