11/05/2002

Austrian Grand Prix - Qualifying Round-Up

Qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix has given Panasonic Toyota Racing its most impressive combined qualifying performance so far this year in preparation for round six of the FIA F1 World Championship.

Mika Salo placed his TF102 10th on the grid in both Malaysia and Brazil and has repeated the performance at the A1-Ring.

Allan McNish has also performed strongly and will line up 14th for tomorrow's race his own best qualifying result of the year as well.

Salo is quietly confident. "The session was good but even so we didn't quite manage to get rid of my understeer in the two left-handers of the infield section and through the last two turns. It has been the same situation since first thing Friday morning but the car is quick on the straight and very good on the brakes which is where I am making my time. As a race car it should be good especially if the weather stays quite warm which suits the tyres and our car.

"Points are a possibility once again but it's a long tough race here. The other issue you have to consider is surviving the first lap with those first two tight corners!" Salo has already had one near miss when he almost collided with pole position man Rubens Barrichello going into Turn 1.

"I want to apologise to Rubens about that I just missed seeing him completely!" the Finn said. "There was a Williams in my mirror and when it went past Rubens was in the blind spot as I tried to move back across onto the racing line. He did well to miss me because it could have been a collision.

McNish was also satisfied with his performance. "The car felt quick and consistent he said. I am optimistic that we can go well tomorrow afternoon. I enjoyed racing here in sportscars. I like the wheel-to-wheel combat of racing and the layout of this circuit means that you often get quite a lot of that."

Barrichello recorded Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro's fifth pole in six races. Ralf Schumacher split the Italian cars for BMW Williams F1 and beat his brother to the remaining place on the front row of the grid. His team mate Juan Pablo Montoya set fourth fastest time while Nick Heidfeld who celebrated his 25th birthday yesterday was fifth for Red Bull Sauber Petronas. Kimi Raikkonen completed the top six for West McLaren-Mercedes.

Both Mika and Allan had extra support in Austria today - from their Mums! The Austrian GP organisers have invited all the drivers' mothers down to the A1 Ring to celebrate Mothers' Day. Tarja Salo and Sheila McNish were crossing their fingers tightly during qualifying in the hope that their 'boys' do the job - and what a job they did!