14/09/2002

Italian Grand Prix - Qualifying Round-Up

Panasonic Toyota Racing is well positioned to end the European-based campaign of the team's debut season on a high. Mika Salo's optimism after the opening day of free practice proved justified as the team qualified a TF102 in the top 10 for the ninth time this season.

The low downforce set-up dictated by the Monza circuit suits the Toyota TF102 and Salo's time 1m22.318s put him 10th on the grid for tomorrow's race. The team discovered that two-lap qualifying runs were the way to get the best out of the car although Allan McNish encountered traffic on his best run. Nevertheless the Scot lines up well on the grid 13th fastest just two-tenths of a second down on Mika with a 1m22.521

Salo said: "I'm happy with the balance of the car. I was expecting a little bit higher position. Relatively the car is not quite so quick when we take the fuel out for qualifying but on full tanks it has been really quick all weekend. I'm a little bit disappointed but 10th at Monza is a pretty good starting point and we have a very good race car."

McNish added: "We didn't do many changes to the car just minor trimming and I'm reasonably happy with the set-up and balance. It was the strategy to do two flying laps because the tyres were quicker on the second lap. That was true but on my best effort I found traffic on the second lap so it didn't quite work out for me."

Technical Co-Ordinator Keizo Takahashi believes reliability will play a key role in tomorrow's race: "We have not yet found the perfect set-up on the TF102s but both drivers performed very well in qualifying " he said. "Tomorrow for the first time we will use our new spec engine in the race and hope to use the high power and reliability to good effect. Clearly our aim is to finish the race but also to make up places when and where we can."

Juan Pablo Montoya who won this race for the BMW Williams F1 Team last year claimed his seventh pole position from the 15 races so far this year edging out the challenge of five-time world champion Michael Schumacher. Ralf Schumacher was just two hundredths slower while Rubens Barrichello starts fourth in the second Ferrari. Kimi Raikkonen was fifth for West McLaren Mercedes and Eddie Irvine qualified a Jaguar Racing entry in the top six for the first time this year.

With Hockenheim's layout now changed Monza's place as the world's fastest Grand Prix circuit was cemented when today's pole position lap an average speed of 259.827kph beat the 17-year-old record set by Keke Rosberg at Silverstone back in 1985.