19/04/2003

San Marino Grand Prix Second Qualifying Report

Olivier Panis qualified in the top 10 for the third time in four races as Panasonic Toyota Racing prepares for the San Marino Grand Prix the first European round of the 2003 FIA Formula 1 World Championship.

The Frenchman had a tough start to the Imola race weekend when he lost time with a bearing problem on Friday and did not get through his full set-up programme. Team principal Ove Andersson's cautious optimism proved to be based on solid foundation however when Panis running ninth in F1's one-shot qualifying format lapped the 4.93km circuit in 1m23.460s.

The lap was good enough to put the Frenchman second at the time and to guarantee that he remained in a competitive situation when the front-runners went out in slightly more favourable conditions at the end of the session.

"It feels good to have put a clean flying lap together the first time this year that I have really managed it Panis said. When I consider the problems we had yesterday I think I should be satisfied. We are reasonably well placed for the race and it would be nice to get some solid points under our belt."

Team mate Cristiano da Matta will line up 13th for the race after a lap in 1m23.838s. The Brazilian was also satisfied with his performance in a qualifying format that is never going to be especially kind to an F1 rookie.

"The track conditions did feel a bit slippery Da Matta admitted, and you are always mindful of pushing too hard and overdoing it. In the end though I think I got just about everything that I could out of the car and the team has done a good job to make constant improvements with the set-up throughout."

Michael Schumacher (1m22.327s) claimed his second pole position of the season for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro ahead of younger brother Ralf (1m22.341s) who achieved his best starting position of the season so far for the BMW Williams F1 Team.

Third fastest was Rubens Barrichello (1m22.557s) aboard the second Ferrari with Juan Pablo Montoya (1m22.789s) placing the second Williams fourth on the grid. Australian Mark Webber (1m23.015s) maintained a top five presence for Jaguar Racing for the second successive race with Kimi Raikkonen (1m23.148s) completing the top six for West McLaren Mercedes.