02/05/2003

Spanish Grand Prix First Qualifying Report

The opening day of practice for the Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona brought deep satisfaction for the Panasonic Toyota Racing team as Cristiano da Matta and Olivier Panis both qualified in the top six!

After a tough start to the 2003 season the result is doubly satisfying because Barcelona is a circuit widely recognised to be a strong barometer of chassis efficiency. It is also the track on which every team apart from Ferrari does more testing mileage than any other. That being the case it is perhaps the best indicator of relative performance so far this season.

For reigning CART champion Da Matta Barcelona is also the F1 circuit that he knows by far the best having raced here in F3000 some seven years ago. He was therefore able to demonstrate his true potential and his 1m17.443s lap was highly encouraging just 0.3s away from Michael Schumacher's session best with the new Ferrari F2003-GA. Panis meanwhile lapped in 1m17.746s putting both drivers in a strong position ahead of Saturday's decisive and grid-determining qualifying hour.

A delighted Da Matta said: "We have been quick in pre-season testing here and it is great to be able to duplicate that in a competitive situation. The knowledge the whole team has of this track has been a big plus in terms of finding a good set-up. My lap went really well -- good and clean with strong performance from the car. We will have to study to see where we can still make further progress but fourth is very good for starters!"

For team mate Panis the day did not run quite so smoothly but he remained optimistic: "We had some problems in free practice and didn't complete our testing programme but I cannot complain too much about sixth place and there is still the opportunity to improve the car for tomorrow."

Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro brought its new chassis to a race for the first time this season and Michael Schumacher immediately produced a strong performance to head the session marginally quicker than Jarno Trulli's Renault (1m17.149s). Rubens Barrichello was third quickest with the second Ferrari despite having to drive the spare car after a mechanical problem while Jenson Button's BAR-Honda (1m17.613) managed to split the two Toyota TF103 chassis.