14/06/2003

Canadian Grand Prix - Second Qualifying Report

The best combined qualifying performance of the season was just reward for the fast-working Panasonic Toyota Racing team at the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal. Olivier Panis's 1m16.598s lap means that he lines up seventh for the race that marks the halfway point in the season. Team mate Cristiano da Matta meanwhile lapped just 0.23s slower and starts from ninth on the grid - his personal best of the year.

The all-important second qualifying period was held on a dry track after yesterday's washout with Michelin claiming seven places in the top 10.

With just a few laps of dry running on Friday and a wet but drying track for Saturday free practice the team also had to contend with spins by both drivers. The damage to Da Matta's car meant that he had to qualify in the spare chassis while Panis praised the team's rapid response.

"I damaged my car a little bit and when I went out afterwards it didn't feel quite right the Frenchman said. The team reacted tremendously and did a great job to prepare the car so well for qualifying. We need to wait and see but I think I have done a good job the tyres look very competitive and I think we are in good shape for the race."

Da Matta added: "It is my best qualifying performance of the season and it is good to qualify in the top 10 for the second successive race. The car feels good under braking and there is no doubt that we have taken some positive steps forward. I damaged the car this morning but the changeable conditions meant that we didn't miss too much set-up time because the conditions were different again this afternoon. Let's hope we can both challenge for points."

Ralf Schumacher (1m15.529s) claimed his second successive pole position for the BMW Williams F1 Team ahead of team mate Juan Pablo Montoya (1m15.923s). Brother Michael was third quickest (1m16.047s) in the first of the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro cars just 0.001s faster than Fernando Alonso for the Mild Seven Renault F1 Team. Rubens Barichello (1m16.143s) was just a tenth of a second adrift of the Spaniard with Mark Webber (1m16.182s) completing the top six qualifiers for Jaguar Racing.

Team manager Ange Pasquali said: "Every so often you get races like this when conditions are never the same from one moment to the next. Happily there was finally a degree of stability for qualifying and it was good that we were able to make the best of that. It was particularly satisfying after we had a couple of incidents in the morning session. Usually conditions like this favour those with experience and big data bases which is why as a relatively new team we can be pleased with our performance."