01/09/2002

Belgian Grand Prix - Race Round up

Panasonic Toyota Racing narrowly missed out on a third world championship point in round 14 of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship at Spa Francorchamps.

Mika Salo finished the race seventh just 0.4s behind Eddie Irvine's Jaguar which claimed the final championship point.

"I think I drove well and didn't make any mistakes the whole race " Salo said. "We just weren't quite fast enough. We were very close to the points but didn't quite make it. So in the end it was a lot of sweat for no reward basically although the team did a good job with the pit stops and everything went well."

Allan McNish finished the race in ninth place after a difficult race in which he felt that the balance of his car was not as good as it had been in qualifying.

"From a team point of view it was a good result and we were more competitive than we have been recently " the Scot said "but from the personal side we had a wheel sensor problem on the installation lap and that effects the traction control which made the car's balance inconsistent for the rest of the day. In relative terms though it was better than the previous races because we were ahead of the Saubers and able to fight people that have been generally ahead of us."

Michael Schumacher dominated the race to score a new record 10 victories in a single season. It was his sixth win in the Belgian Grand Prix and Scuderia Marlboro Ferrari's fifth 1-2 finish of the year. Rubens Barrichello finished just behind Schumacher after the world champion backed off in the closing stages. Juan Pablo Montoya finished third for the BMW Williams F1 team narrowly beating David Coulthard in the only West McLaren Mercedes car to finish. After a promising qualifying session team mate Kimi Raikkonen suffered a mechanical problem. Ralf Schumacher was fifth in the second Williams-BMW ahead of Irvine who claimed Jaguar's first point since Melbourne in March.

Panasonic Toyota Racing president Ove Andersson said: "We have not been so close to the points for a long time and both cars finished so it was a very positive race for us. The team has done a very good job."

The championship now heads for the final European round at Monza in two weeks - another high-speed circuit on which the team will test for four days next week.