12/06/2004

Grand Prix of Canada - Qualifying Report

Panasonic Toyota Racing drivers Cristiano da Matta (1m14.851s) and Olivier Panis (1m14.891s) have qualified in 12th and 13th positions on the grid for the Canadian Grand Prix round 8 of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship.

Despite the absence of local hero Jacques Villeneuve this year the Montreal crowd's enthusiasm for Formula 1 remains undimmed and the grandstands were full for an entertaining qualifying session ahead of the season's first race in North America.

Da Matta said: "I wouldn't say that was the greatest qualifying lap I have driven this year and there was possibly another two or three tenths to be had from the car. But we have concentrated on our race strategy and improving the consistency and perhaps we paid for that with a little too much understeer in qualifying. The other side of that however is that we should be able to look after the rear tyres better in the race."

Panis after being unhappy with the car in free practice on Friday was more satisfied: "You have to judge your qualifying lap very carefully here because there is a lot of heavy braking with the car in low downforce trim. That means that as the speed comes off it is quite easy for the car to feel a little jumpy or to lock a brake. You might pick up a couple of tenths but you can just as easily lose half a second."

Sunday's grid will have a different look about it after Ralf Schumacher took the first pole position of the year for both himself and the BMW Williams F1 Team. The German lapped in 1m12.275s some 0.066s quicker than Jenson Button's Lucky Strike BAR Honda. Third quickest was Monte Carlo winner Jarno Trulli (1m13.023s) in the first of the Mild Seven Renault F1 Team cars ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya (1m13.072s) in the second BMW Williams and |Fernando Alonso (1m13.308s) in the second Renault. With cars on Michelin tyres filling the first five places six-time champion Michael Schumacher (1m13.355s) had to be content with sixth quickest time for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro.

Panasonic Toyota Racing's Technical Director Chassis Mike Gascoyne said: "We have worked on optimising the car for the race both in terms of tyre selection and strategy so I think we can be satisfied with our performance. The Michelin tyres that we have selected seem pretty consistent so I hope that our race pace will prove likewise more so than in recent races. Canada is very tough on brakes and engines and we are hoping that reliability will allow us to have both cars around at the chequered flag and to see if we can score some points."