23/05/2004

Grand Prix of Monaco - Race Report

Panasonic Toyota Racing scored a double success of championship points in an incident-packed Monaco Grand Prix with Cristiano Da Matta finishing the race in sixth position and team mate Olivier Panis eighth.

The race started in dramatic fashion for the team when Panis's TF104 stalled on the grid causing the first start to be aborted. The Frenchman who won this race in 1996 was then forced to begin the restarted event from the pitlane.

The race saw two Safety Car periods the first for an accident caused on the harbour front when an engine failure unsighted drivers and Giancarlo Fisichella rolled his Sauber Petronas. The Italian escaped unhurt.

Then later in the race an accident to Fernando Alonso in Monte Carlo's famous tunnel brought out the course car once again. This time the Spaniard was unhurt. The typical Monte Carlo race of attrition proved the truth of Panis's words on Saturday: "At Monte Carlo anything can happen!"

There were still more dramas left for the Toyota team however when Da Matta was adjudged to have held up Jenson Button and received a Drive Through penalty.

"That was probably the strongest race pace that we have since the beginning of the year Da Matta said. To open our 2004 points account with sixth place and three points is good but it could have been even better.

"I had a clutch problem which lost me time at my second pit stop and then I was given the Drive Through penalty for apparently ignoring blue flags. It was just so frustrating. I really think that the situation with blue flags has to be looked into because our race was compromised a lot today and it was a mistake. We came away with sixth but it could and should have been fourth."

Panis added: "With all the problems we had at the start where the car stalled twice to finish eighth is highly positive. As well as my starting trouble I had to contend with some quite serious braking issues and Monte Carlo is not the best place to have them! But I am more than happy for the whole Toyota family that we scored points with both cars and came away seventh in the constructors' championship just one point behind McLaren Mercedes."

Both team principal Tsutomu Tomita and Technical Director Chassis Mike Gascoyne supported Da Matta's frustration at the Drive Through penalty.

"While Toyota will always accept the final decision of the FIA said Tomita, we have already raised the issue of blue flags with the FIA after the Spanish Grand Prix so we are disappointed with the inconsistency in today's race which we consider to be unfair."

Gascoyne added: "I have to say that the inconsistency with the blue flags is appalling. Cristiano got a flag and moved over at the next corner and was then given a penalty while Ralf Schumacher was in front of us for two or three laps while a lap behind and nothing was done. There seems to be one rule for those at the front and one rule for the rest of us. "

The dramas concluded with the first career F1 win for Mild Seven Renault driver Jarno Trulli who finished just a car's length ahead of Jenson Button's BAR Honda. Rubens Barrichello's was third for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya's BMW Williams Felipe Massa's Sauber Petronas and then splitting the two Toyota TF104 drivers in seventh place Nick Heidfeld's Jordan Ford.

Explaining the technical glitches that the team experienced Gascoyne said: "Both cars had a clutch problem which caused Olivier to stall at the start and also caused the problem for Cristiano during his second pitstop which possibly cost him a podium."

The team will now try to capitalise on its Monaco success in what is a home race for the Cologne-based team at Nurburgring in a week's time.