05/04/2003

Brazilian Grand Prix - Second Qualifying Report

There was frustration and disappointment in the Panasonic Toyota Racing garage today after Olivier Panis (1m14.839s) and Cristiano da Matta (1m15.641s) qualified in 15th and 18th places respectively for the Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos.

The discontentment was due to the fact that in morning practice Panis had been fastest of all topping the session with a 1m13.457s lap some 0.08s quicker than Michael Schumacher's Ferrari. And as chief designer Gustav Brunner explained the team had not altered the car or the fuel load between the sessions. The higher track temperatures in qualifying meant that everyone was slightly slower than the morning practice but not to the same extent as the Toyota TF103s.

The Toyota appeared to bounce more on the bumps through the Senna S in the first sector of the lap and Panis admitted to an error in sector two.

"I tried to push little too hard and it's quite easy to lock a wheel in the right-handers in the second sector he explained. I lost a full second compared with the best second sector time and I want to say sorry to the guys. It's pretty frustrating after what we had achieved in the morning session but it goes without saying that I will drive on the limit tomorrow to try to score some points."

For Da Matta 18th place at home was a disappointment too.

"I think that the effects of the rain yesterday made itself felt today when we had so little time to try to arrive at the best set-up " he said. "I was struggling for grip and obviously we did not achieve a workable balance on the car. We changed things from the morning practice but it did not make a lot of difference."

Rubens Barrichello (1m13.807s) was delighted to claim pole position for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro in front of his adoring home fans. The Brazilian was just 0.01s faster than Melbourne winner David Coulthard's West McLaren Mercedes entry while Mark Webber (1m13.851s) followed up his Friday performance with the third fastest time for Jaguar Racing.

Kimi Raikkonen winner of the second round in Malaysia a fortnight ago lines up fourth in Brazil ahead of Mild Seven Renault driver Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher in the first BMW Williams F1 Team car.

Interlagos is often a demanding race. The track has a technical infield sector with adverse camber corners and a lap that is run anti-clockwise putting particular strain on the driver's neck which tends to be naturally stronger on the other side.

After fuel problems in the opening two races Panasonic Toyota Racing is hoping for better reliability in Brazil as it searches for its first two-car finish of the season. With Toyota and Da Matta fans in the crowd the team will be encouraged as it puts in maximum effort striving to claim a top-eight points-scoring position tomorrow afternoon.