26/05/2002

60th Monaco Grand Prix Round-Up

The classic Monte Carlo street circuit punishes heavily for any mistake and Panasonic Toyota Racing learned that the hard way on a day when the team had hoped to add to the points already scored in Australia and Brazil.

The race demands absolute precision for 78 laps. Unfortunately though after securing start positions in the top 10 during qualifying Allan McNish retired after just 15 laps.

The Scot was running in eighth place right behind team-mate Mika Salo when he made a small mistake at the entry to Sainte Devote the first corner.

"It was very annoying " McNish said "I was feeling very comfortable possibly a bit quicker than Mika but you are not in a situation to do anything about it around this track. Suddenly I just clipped the barrier going in which pushed me wide and into the tyre barrier on the exit. It's hard to explain how annoyed and frustrated you feel at times like that."

Just six laps later Salo had to make an unscheduled pit stop for tyres after the left rear started to lose tread.

"I felt a very strong vibration " he explained. "At first I thought about trying to continue through to my fuel stop but in the high speed parts of the circuit it was just too dangerous."

The Finn was coming back through the field strongly and took 7th spot after he outbraked Olivier Panis into the harbour front chicane. He made the latest fuel stop of the race on lap 62 but unfortunately hit the barrier with nine laps to go at Massenet and spun backwards across the track.

"The brake pedal suddenly went soft and I thought I was going to have a very big shunt so I actually tried to scrub some speed off against the inside barrier which was hard enough to actually spin me around " Salo explained. "It's frustrating not to finish the race but the positive thing is that none of the Toyota parts failed!"

A fascinating race was led from start to finish by David Coulthard's McLaren-Mercedes which finished just a second clear of world champion Michael Schumacher's Ferrari. Ralf Schumacher took third to score another podium finish for the BMW Williams F1 Team.

Jarno Trulli scored his first points of the season for Mild Seven Renault F1 while Giancarlo Fisichella's Jordan-Honda and Heinz Harald Frentzen's Arrows-Cosworth completed the points scorers.