12/05/2002

Austrian Grand Prix - Race Report

Panasonic Toyota Racing again demonstrated strong reliability and got both cars to the finish of an incident-packed Austrian Grand Prix round six of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship at Spielberg.

Mika Salo and Allan McNish both pushed hard all race long in an event that was interrupted by two Safety Car periods. At the end Finnish driver Salo was eighth and missed out on a point by less than 20 seconds while Scot McNish followed across the finish line in his wheel tracks.

Salo explained: "It was a good race for us until the Safety Car came out and we made a mistake with the timing of my pit stop. Things like this are inevitable in our first season and we will learn all the time. After that I was held up by a back-marker for several laps and I lost contact with the group in front. But another two-car finish is positive for the team."

McNish added: "Overall it was quite a strong race for us with a lot of physical activity at the start. The deployment of the Safety Car harmed us a lot more than the others but the car ran very well and we put in some respectable times after a conservative first few laps. It was good to get both cars to the end of the race again.

President Ove Andersson complimented the team on a strong effort. "We again showed our reliability with no major problems " he said. "The Safety Car upset our race strategy and I believe we could have had both cars in the points. We were much improved in terms of our competitiveness at this particular circuit so things seem to be on the way up."

As last year the Austrian race saw Rubens Barrichello asked to move over on the last lap so that Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro team mate Michael Schumacher could cross the line ahead this time the red cars finishing 1-2.

Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher came home 3rd and 4th for BMW Williams F1 Team. Giancarlo Fisichella took the first points of the season for DHL Jordan Honda and David Coulthard scored the final point for West McLaren Mercedes.

The first Safety Car period was prompted by a mechanical failure to Olivier Panis which left his car stranded on the straight and then almost immediately the car was sent out again when Nick Heidfeld spun and hit Takuma Sato. The Japanese driver has escaped with heavy bruising.