13/06/2003

Canadian Grand Prix - First Qualifying Report

The Panasonic Toyota Racing team was confronted by heavy rain for the first session of qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal. It was the first all-wet qualifying period of the year with the rain intensity varying throughout.

Frenchman Olivier Panis did a fine job to rose to put the first Toyota TF103 into the top 10 with a lap in 1m37.313s. Team mate Cristiano da Matta meanwhile had to be satisfied with 16th quickest on 1m38.244s and was a little unlucky to be on-circuit at a time when conditions were at their wettest.

The Montreal track is a combination of flat-out straights linked by chicanes and hairpins. Braking stability is a key issue as is traction especially in the conditions that the drivers faced this afternoon. Reflecting the high driving standards in F1 every driver completed his lap and recorded a time in spite of the torrential state of the track.

Panis said: "I think I can be more than satisfied with my performance. It was pretty treacherous out there for everyone and considering that I had never actually tested the Michelin emonsoon' tyre that we were using the place in the top 10 has put us in a strong position for tomorrow. Of course tomorrow will probably present us with a totally different set of conditions but there is no doubt that today was positive and we are going in the right direction."

Da Matta added: "Not so good for me unfortunately but the conditions were changing throughout and it's hard to draw any meaningful conclusions from the times. It was wet this morning but it was even wetter in qualifying which didn't help grip levels on my flying lap. It is always a tough challenge in the wet; there is absolutely no room for error and it is much harder to put a perfect lap together. It was quite a benefit knowing the track particularly as we didn't have any proper dry running this morning"

The fastest lap was set early in the session by Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro driver Rubens Barrichello (1m30.925s) who managed to jump ahead of team mate and five times champion Michael Schumacher (1m31.969s) at the top of the time sheet.

Nick Heidfeld (1m32.778s) was third quickest for the Sauber Petronas team ahead of Ralph Firman (1m34.759s) for the Jordan-Ford team who recorded his best qualifying effort thus far in his rookie year.

Fernando Alonso (1m35.173s) took fifth place whilst world championship leader Kimi Raikkonen (1m35.373s) who was first out onto the track completed the top six for the West McLaren Mercedes team.

Team Principal Ove Andersson said: "Sooner or later we were going to have a wet session and it is gratifying to see that the team has responded well and Olivier has put us in the top 10. I think that Cristiano did not get the best of the conditions but it is always a bit of a lottery in such circumstances."