25/05/2002

Monaco Grand Prix - Qualifying Round-Up

The Monaco Grand Prix round seven of this season's Formula 1 World Championship has provided an appropriate stage for Panasonic Toyota Racing to achieve its best qualifying performance of the season so far. Mika Salo will start his 100th Grand Prix in 9th with Allan McNish in 10th just 0.06s slower in what is his first race of any kind in Monte Carlo.

The 78-lap race is one of the most challenging on the calendar and experience often counts for a lot. Salo is not short of that having finished four previous races here in the points. The Finn is hopeful that he can repeat the feat again tomorrow and spoke highly of both his Toyota crew and his team-mate.

"I really think that we can finish the race with both cars in the points " he said. "I got the maximum out of both myself and the car and set my best time on the third qualifying run. On my last lap I tried perhaps a bit too hard - I finished it with barrier marks on all four wheels!

"But even though everything went well I'm still not totally happy with my car balance. There was something strange that we just can't quite pinpoint. But we have a test in Silverstone next week to try out a new aero package which we hope to use from Canada and the car will be better. It was a great effort from everyone in the team today Allan especially. I told him that the most important thing was to keep off the barriers and to establish a rhythm and it looks like he has done that."

McNish himself said: "In terms of career satisfaction it probably doesn't rank quite as highly as taking pole position at Le Mans but qualifying in the top 10 at Monte Carlo is pretty close! It is a special place. I first came here with my Mum and Dad when I was nine years old and I remember it well - it was the race when Derek Daly flipped his Tyrrell going into the first corner!

"It's the kind of place that you either like or you don't and I really like it. If you under-commit you are a long way off the pace and if you over-commit you are in the wall. It is a real challenge."

Juan Pablo Montoya took a dramatic last minute pole position for BMW Williams F1 when he became the only man to lap the circuit in under 1m17s. His run relegated David Coulthard's McLaren-Mercedes to second while Michael Schumacher had to cope with dirt in his eye as he recorded third fastest time for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro. Ralf Schumacher lines up fourth in the second Williams-BMW while Kimi Raikkonen recovered from a crash on Saturday morning to put the second West McLaren Mercedes car into the top six.