03/05/2003

Spanish Grand Prix Second Qualifying Report

Panasonic Toyota Racing has qualified in the top six for tomorrow's Spanish Grand Prix round 5 of the 2003 FIA Formula 1 World Championship.

Olivier Panis lapped the 4.73km Circuit de Catalunya in 1m18.811s a second slower than five times world champion Michael Schumacher who set the pace as Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro debuted its new F2003-GA chassis.

After qualifying fifth for the season-opening race in Melbourne it is the second time that Frenchman Panis had put the TF103 among the top half dozen. Team mate Cristiano da Matta meanwhile will start the race from 13th position after a lap in 1m19.623s.

Panis said: "It was a good lap. I was quick in sector one then my second sector time was quicker than everyone except Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso but I lost out a little in sector three. Overall though sixth is the sort of starting position we should be aiming at and I am hopeful that we can score points in the race."

Da Matta who was fourth quickest in Friday qualifying had to content himself with 13th. With the teams now having to start in the same configuration that they finish qualifying there is inevitably speculation about varying strategies and indeed both Panasonic Toyota Racing drivers were running different technical set-ups today. Da Matta said: "I'm a little disappointed. My qualifying lap did not feel too bad -- not brilliant but I was suffering from some oversteer today whereas yesterday the balance was a lot more neutral.

"The oversteer meant that I had to be careful about pushing too hard because off-line the track is quite dusty and I didn't want to make a mistake. That has cost me a little bit. Obviously 13th is not where I wanted to be but I will push as hard as I can to try to score points."

Team principal Ove Anderson added: "Again we have managed to get a car into the top 10 and sixth is an extremely good place to start tomorrow's race and achieve our aim of scoring points. Having said that I am a bit superstitious about making predictions..."

Team Manager Ange Pasquali concluded: "I think we have done a good job today. Olivier did a good job despite losing some time in the final sector which could have placed him 4th but we are more than happy with 6th place. Cristiano suffered with understeer and couldn't get everything out of the car but we are quite well prepared for the race so the rest of the weekend is looking quite promising."

Behind Michael Schumacher team mate Rubens Barrichello (1m18.020) made it a Ferrari 1-2 while Fernando Alonso (1m18.233s) cheered his home supporters by placing third on the grid for the Mild Seven Renault F1 Team. Italian team mate Jarno Trulli (1m18.615s) backed him up with fourth place while a strong performance from Briton Jenson Button (1m18.704) gave the Lucky Strike BAR-Honda team fifth place on the grid.