22/06/2002

European Grand Prix - Qualifying Round-Up

Panasonic Toyota Racing heads into the European Grand Prix round 9 of the F1 World Championship at Nuerburgring boosted by its second most impressive combined qualifying performance of the season.

200 members of the Cologne-based team were watching in amazement from the last corner grandstand as Mika Salo secured another top 10 qualifying position - the fifth time this year that he has managed the feat and the sixth time for the team.

The 35-year-old Finn was just 1.48s away from Juan Pablo Montoya's pole position despite encountering a lot of traffic and also experiencing a strange feeling through the steering on a couple of his qualifying runs.

"I was a bit unfortunate " Salo said. "I think it might have been possible to qualify a couple of places further up but in the final analysis I am more or less satisfied with the car's balance and my position. We are back to business now compared to Canada where we qualified poorly."

Team mate Allan McNish who was not happy with the handling of his car after Friday's free practice also did a fine job to also record his second best qualifying position of the season 13th.

"The car felt a lot better than yesterday " McNish said. "I think the circuit grip level has come up a lot which has helped us but there's still a small issue with the electronics which we need to sort out tonight."

Panasonic Toyota Racing team manager Ange Pasquali was pleased with the performance in what is effectively a 'home' race for his team.

"The fact that we have qualified in the top 10 for the sixth time shows the consistency of the work we are doing. We went through a sensible qualifying rationale and have improved and exploited what we learned yesterday and in the second session this morning. Now we hope to make a good start to the race and be reliable."

At the front of the grid the BMW Williams F1 Team monopolised proceedings as Juan Pablo Montoya secured his third successive pole position just 0.009s ahead of team mate Ralf Schumacher.

Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro will occupy row two with Michael Schumacher ahead of Rubens Barrichello while West McLaren Mercedes lines up on row three with David Coulthard marginally faster than Kimi Raikkonen.