19/07/2002

French Grand Prix - Free Practice

The Panasonic Toyota Racing team had mixed fortunes on the opening day of its debut French Grand Prix weekend in Magny-Cours today. Mika Salo had incidents in both sessions but ended the day in 7th place whilst traffic affected Allan McNish’s running - the Scot finishing in 11th.

Mika Salo - Car No. 24

Position:	7th 1m15.161s 28 laps completed
Chassis:	TF102/07

"Not such a good first day. I had an incident early in the first session when a car on its installation lap collided with me. We then had to repair the steering on my car which lost a lot of time. We concentrated on setting up the car in the second session but we had an engine-related problem towards the end preventing us from completing today’s programme. The exact cause of the problem needs to be investigated."

Allan McNish - Car No. 25

Position:	11th 1m15.411s 44 laps completed
Chassis:	TF102/08

"Friday is always a little bit hard to read but the car was definitely better by the end of the second session. Traffic is always a major issue round here and I think that is going to be a big factor for tomorrow in qualifying. I was held up on a couple occasions today but overall it probably happened to a lot of other people as well."

Keizo Takahashi - Technical Co-Ordinator
"Being fast around this circuit is all about the total balance of the car. Cars need to be good aerodynamically but have good mechanical grip good brakes and a good engine. The first day was not so bad for us but unfortunately Mika had a engine problem in the second session. We now have to check exactly what happened and find a quick solution."

Weather:	Dry hot and sunny
Temperatures:	Air - Min 21°C Max 26°C Track - Min 23°C Max 44°C Average humidity - 43%
T-car:	TF102/06 set up for Mika Salo