12/05/2002

Austrian Grand Prix - Race

Panasonic Toyota Racing achieved its second consecutive two-car Grand Prix finish in Austria today. In an eventful race which saw the safety car appear twice Salo finished 8th with McNish just 0.2 seconds back in 9th.

Mika Salo - Car No. 24

Position:	8th 71/71 laps completed
Chassis:	TF102/04

"It was a good race until the safety car came out and we made a mistake with the timing of my pit stop. I think these are the things we are learning from this year. After that I was held up by a lapped car for several laps and I lost contact with the group in front. Another two-car finish is however a very positive result for the team."

Allan McNish - Car No. 25

Position:	9th 71/71 laps completed
Chassis:	TF102/02

"Overall it was quite a strong race for us and 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."

Ove Andersson - President
"Another strong performance from the whole team. We again showed our reliability with no major problems. 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."

Weather:	Dry and sunny but some cloud
Temperatures:	Air - Min 20°C Max 23°C Track - Min 24°C Max 33°C Average humidity 38%
T-car:	Chassis TF102/05 set up for Mika Salo

Review
Allan and Mika came 5th and 19th in Friday's free practice working on different programmes and fuel levels. Qualifying saw Mika and Allan end up 10th and 14th with only two-tenths of a second separating them.

Preview
The team now returns to its home test track of Circuit Paul Ricard in France for a three-day session from 15-17 May.