13/11/2002

Japanese Grand Prix - Race Round-Up

Mika Salo finished the Japanese Grand Prix in eighth place for Panasonic Toyota Racing at Suzuka as the curtain came down on the 2002 season.

Unfortunately the team was reduced to just one car in its first home Grand Prix because Allan McNish was ruled unfit to drive following his heavy accident in qualifying on Saturday afternoon. Salo meanwhile raced hard and some fine pit work by the team got him up into the top 10.

"After that though it wasn't the most exciting of races " the Finn admitted. "There was a problem with the final set of tyres which gave a lot of understeer. We had a sensor failure which cost us a lot of time in the middle of the race but again the guys used bi-directional telemetry to help that. All in all the race was nothing special but it was good to see the chequered flag on my last race with the team."

McNish went off at the challenging 130R bend on Saturday and suffered heavy bruising to his right knee. He took part in the race morning warm-up when he was 13th quickest with a lap just 0.1s away Salo's but the FIA medical delegates declared that he should not race.

McNish explained: "After the accident I rested and felt okay in the warm-up but after the examination they decided that it was better that I didn't compete. The bruising is not too bad but they were concerned that over a period of time strapped into the car it might cause me a problem. I certainly went out in style but not exactly in the way I wanted!"

Michael Schumacher scored a record 11th Grand Prix victory in a single year while team mate Rubens Barrichello backed him up to help achieve Scuderia Marlboro Ferrari's ninth 1-2 finish of the season. Kimi Raikkonen scored his fourth podium finish of the season for West McLaren Mercedes ahead of Juan Montoya's BMW Williams F1 entry. In fifth position was Takuma Sato whose first points for DHL Jordan Honda delighted the Japanese fans while Jenson Button took the final point for Mild Seven Renault.

"It has been a better season than I dared anticipate " said Panasonic Toyota Racing president Ove Andersson "although I think that scoring points so early perhaps raised expectations to an unrealistic level. Every race has been a learning experience for us and next year we aim to make further progress."