18/05/2003

Toyota Sunday Web Report

The Panasonic Toyota Racing team had a disappointing afternoon in the Austrian Grand Prix at A1-Ring culminating in a retirement for Olivier Panis and a 10th place finish for Cristiano da Matta.

Problems started on the grid when Da Matta starting 13th suffered a launch control failure that caused the first race start to be aborted. The field did another formation lap with the race shortened by a lap as a result and Da Matta lined up at the back of the grid.

Second time around and exactly the same thing happened again with the second start also aborted. "It was a problem with the launch control and at the third start we switched the system off and made a manual start explained chief designer Gustav Brunner.

Once the race had begun at the third time of asking, the Safety Car was deployed because of a problem removing Jos Verstappen's stricken Minardi, and the team took the opportunity to bring Panis into the pits and switch onto a one stop strategy. The quick-thinking could have seen the Frenchman in a strong position later on but unfortunately his appalling luck continued and he retired after six laps.

Approaching Turn 2 I ran over a piece of debris on the track I'm not sure what it was. The car didn't want to turn into the corner and the front left tyre was punctured. I thought the suspension could also have been damaged and I had no choice but to stop. The guys checked the car back in the garage and saw the front suspension was indeed damaged"

Da Matta overcame his early problems to drive a committed race enjoying a battle with Giancarlo Fisichella's Jordan-Ford en route to an eventual 10th place. The team again performed good pit stop work bringing Da Matta in earlier than planned to get him ahead of Ralph Firman.

"The first two starts were a bit of a nightmare and we didn't risk it a third time the Brazilian explained. Obviously starting from the back of the grid is not the sort of beginning to a race that you want but I just had to keep my head down and drive as hard as I could."

At the front of the field Michael Schumacher won his third successive Grand Prix for Scuderia Marlboro Ferrari overcoming a lengthy first pit stop when the team had to cope with flames shooting from the refuelling hose. Schumacher remained cool in the cockpit and then overcame the challenge of championship leader Kimi Raikkonen on the circuit.

Raikkonen's second place for West McLaren Mercedes maintained his lead in the championship which is now down to two points from the Ferrari driver. Rubens Barrichello made it a Ferrari 1-3 with Jenson Button in fourth place for Lucky Strike BAR-Honda. David Coulthard finished fifth with the second McLaren with Ralf Schumacher a lapped sixth in the first BMW Williams F1 Team entry. Team mate Juan Pablo Montoya suffered a mechanical failure while leading the race. Jaguar Racing's Mark Webber and Mild Seven Renault's Jarno Trulli completed the point scorers.

The championship now heads to Monte Carlo in a fortnight with the pundits predicting that strategy will be more important there than ever.