23/08/2003

Hungarian Grand Prix - Second Qualifying Session

For the seventh race in succession the Panasonic Toyota Racing team has put one of its TF103 race cars in the top half of the grid after Frenchman Olivier Panis claimed tenth place in today's Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying session. Cristiano da Matta encountered some handling problems on his flying lap and drove a somewhat cautious lap after spinning in the pre-qualifying sessions all of which resulted in the Brazilian's 15th place on the starting grid for tomorrow's race.

Olivier Panis - Car Number 20
Session Classification:10th
Lap Time:1m23.369s +1.681s from pole
Running Order:14th
Chassis:TF103/08
"I am really pleased with my lap. It was quite a strong run and I don't think we could get any more from the car. I made no mistakes and pushed to the limit so now we have to wait and see what happens tomorrow. Top ten on the grid was the aim and we have achieved that today so from there we are looking to score more points in the race - this is the what we need to achieve in the remaining races of the season."

Cristiano da Matta - Car Number 21
Session Classification:15th
Lap Time:1m23.982s +2.294s from pole
Running Order:2nd
Chassis:TF103/04
"Obviously that wasn't my best qualifying lap but I decided to take a conservative approach after spinning a couple of times during the weekend. I have had some handling problems today with oversteer in my car and generally the grip levels have not been as good today as they were yesterday which has affected the overall performance. From 15th on the grid it's going to be a tough race but nevertheless I'm going to push for points."

Keizo Takahashi - General Manager Car Design and Development
"We came into this Hungarian Grand Prix expecting it to be the hardest of the four remaining races of the year so I think that to get a seventh consecutive top ten qualifying result today was a good result. Going out second in the running order Cristiano suffered a bit with dustier track conditions but also had some oversteer which affected his overall lap time. Olivier had a trouble-free lap to take tenth achieving our top ten target for qualifying. I am hopeful that we can also achieve our race target namely more points."

Weather:Hot and sunny.
T-car:TF103/07 set up for Olivier Panis. Spare Chassis: TF103/02

Weekend at a Glance
Friday practice (dry track)
Panis P1 1m21.770s 25 laps
Da Matta P5 1m22.700s 24 laps

Friday Qualifying (dry track)
Panis P7 1m22.986s (+0.628s)
Da Matta P20 1m55.138s (+32.780s)

Saturday practice 1 (dry track)
Panis P7 1m24.251s 14 laps
Da Matta P15 1m25.545s 16 laps

Saturday practice 2 (dry track)
Panis P10 1m23.789s 17 laps
Da Matta P17 1m24.401s 13 laps

Warm-Up (dry track)
Panis P8 1m23.582s 6 laps
Da Matta P13 1m24.789s 5 laps