10/05/2002

Austrian Grand Prix - Free Practice

Panasonic Toyota Racing had two constructive free practice sessions at the Austrian A1-Ring today. Drivers Allan McNish and Mika Salo worked on different programmes with their TF102s and with varying fuel loads. McNish ended up in 5th position with Salo 19th.

Allan McNish - Car No. 25

Position:	5th 1m11.140s 44 laps completed
Chassis:	TF102/02

"I am quite happy with the handling of the car today. The A1-Ring is a circuit I like and one I know well. We tested here last year with our TF101 test car and that has proved to be an advantage. We expected to do reasonably here but the field is very tight and every thousandth of a second counts."

Mika Salo - Car No. 24

Position:	19th 1m12.375s 48 laps completed
Chassis:	TF102/04

"We managed to complete the programme we had today with some long runs. I am content with the car set-up but we do have some small handling problems at high speed that we have to fix. But overall I am quite confident for qualifying tomorrow."

Keizo Takahashi - Technical Co-ordinator
"We tried different set-ups for Mika and Allan and both cars showed
satisfying results. The A1-Ring is a power circuit and the track suits our car better. We will analyse the data from today and push to the limit in qualifying tomorrow."

Weather:	Dry and sunny but some cloud
Temperatures:	Air - Min 19°C Max 22°C Track - Min 21°C Max 29°C Average humidity 44%
T-car:	Chassis TF102/05 set up for Allan McNish