11/10/2002

Japanese Grand Prix - Free Practice Round-Up

Panasonic Toyota Racing has made a solid start to its first Japanese Grand Prix with Mika Salo 11th quickest after the first day of free practice at Suzuka. Salo lapped in 1m36.893s with team mate Allan McNish three places further back with a 1m37.384s best lap.

Mika Salo who leaves the team after the Suzuka race has marked the occasion by sporting blue hair!

Salo who spent a significant proportion of his pre-F1 career in Japan loves Suzuka and was as enthusiastic as ever about the 5.821km track that is widely regarded to be one of the most challenging venues left on the F1 calendar.

"It's still great " the Finn enthused. "It just seems to get narrower every year due to the cars getting faster. The car seems to be working well which is good because we were expecting a hard time around here. So far it's good a little understeer maybe but nothing serious.

McNish added: "It was pretty much the usual Friday trying to get a balance on the car. We were also working out what we are going to do on tyres. I think Michelin has brought a tyre that works well on our car but there were changes of grip all around the circuit though and I think we had a bit too much understeer today which we are going to have to work on."

At the front of the field West McLaren-Mercedes set the pace with Kimi Raikkonen lapping in 1m34.232s half a second clear of his team mate David Coulthard. Rubens Barrichello was third fastest in the first of the Scuderia Marlboro Ferraris after world champion Michael Schumacher missed most of the second session with a mechanical problem and could only manage the sixth fastest time. Juan Pablo Montoya ended up fourth quickest for the BMW Williams F1 Team slightly quicker than team mate Ralf Schumacher.

Outside of the paddock Mika Salo delighted Japanese fans by making an appearance at the impressive Toyota PR booth in the public area shortly after the free practice session today. The PR booth provides Japanese Toyota fans the chance to see a replica TF102 car big-screen TV footage of the TF102 in action and the opportunity to buy team merchandise. Such was the interest and excitement to see Mika at Toyota's home grand prix that around eight security guards were needed to get him safely back into the paddock. Allan McNish will be paying a visit to the PR booth after qualifying tomorrow.