12/09/2003

Italian Grand Prix - First Qualifying Report

Cristiano da Matta equalled his own and Panasonic Toyota Racing's best Friday qualifying performance of the season when he was fourth quickest in first qualifying for Sunday's Italian Grand Prix at Monza. Da Matta also set the fourth fastest time on Friday in Spain a race he went on to finish in 6th position.

The Brazilian who celebrates his 30th birthday in a week's time lapped the 5.793km Autodromo Nazionale di Monza today in 1m21.829s just 1.1s slower than Juan Pablo Montoya's fastest lap.

"I am very happy with the time Da Matta said. We have studied the data from last week's test and have come up with a good set-up. Again we have started the weekend well and I hope that we can keep the momentum going at a circuit where the car should be a strong contender for points."

French team mate Olivier Panis had a more difficult time. Monza demands efficient aerodynamics a strong engine and good braking capability into the chicanes with drivers slowing right down from 350kmh at the first chicane. It was in this latter area that Panis found his Toyota TF103 to be lacking and he elected to take the spare chassis for qualifying.

"From first thing this morning the car did not have an especially good mechanical feel and there was quite a bit of instability under braking he explained. Hopefully though we will be able to have a look at the data and understand everything before tomorrow."

Panis's time (1m22.372s) was still good enough for a top 10 position however with most of his deficit lost in sector one bearing out his comments on braking stability.

Particularly encouraging aspects for the team were two indications of genuine pace and progress. Da Matta set the quickest time of all through the first sector of the lap and Michael Schumacher's Ferrari only fractionally beat his speed trap time.

Behind Montoya (1m20.656s) at the front of the field was Rubens Barrichello (1m20.784s) with the quicker of the two Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro cars almost half a second quicker than team mate Michael Schumacher (1m21.286s). Da Matta's fourth place separated Schumacher from championship rival Kimi Raikkonen (1m21.966s) while Mark Webber (1m21.966s) completed the top six for Jaguar Racing. Ralf Schumacher back in a BMW Williams cockpit after a heavy testing shunt last week had his time disallowed for missing out the first chicane after locking up his tyres.

The team's Italian engine boss Luca Marmorini was pleased with the opening day of his home grand prix: "I think 4th and 10th position in today's qualifying session is an encouraging start to the weekend. However there is over a second between us and the frontrunners so we have to keep our feet on the ground. Cristiano did a very commendable job and set the fastest first sector of the session. It was a shame Olivier could not do a similar time but he nevertheless drove a respectable lap and had a very good second sector time. We are at over 70% full throttle at Monza - the most of the season - so it is tough on the engine. Things have run smoothly today so I think we should be optimistic."