03/07/2004

Grand Prix of France - Qualifying Report

Cristiano da Matta will start the French Grand Prix in 11th place for the Panasonic Toyota Racing team. The Brazilian lapped the 4.411km Magny Cours circuit in 1m14.533s while team mate Olivier Panis recorded 1m15.130s and lines up three places further back on the grid.

Da Matta's time was just 0.84s down on pole position man Fernando Alonso but so close were the qualifying times as F1 gets ever more competitive that there were nine cars in between!

"I don't think we were anticipating that Magny Cours would be one of the better venues for us Da Matta said, but it went well and I was happy with my qualifying lap. In the pre-qualifying session I felt I had a touch of understeer but the team were successful in being able to eliminate it for the lap that mattered. I don't think there was any more time to be had from the car and I only missed out on a top 10 qualifying position by 0.05s. With the race strategy we have I think we are well placed to challenge for points in the race."

For Panis of course Magny Cours is his home race and he admitted to disappointment.

"I experienced some problems with the car bottoming out and then I noticed quite a loss of grip in the final sector of the lap. It's not ideal to be starting 14th in front of my home fans and of course we cannot make any changes to the car until the first pit stops so I will have to make the best of things. But it's a tough race here and I will do my best to fight my way into the points."

Fernando Alonso (1m13.698s) claimed only the fourth non-Ferrari pole position of the season for the Mild Seven Renault F1 Team ahead of six times world champion Michael Schumacher (1m13.971s). David Coulthard (1m13.987s) was third quickest for the West McLaren Mercedes team which debuted its revised MP4-19B chassis in France scoring its first top three qualifying position of the season at the same time. Jenson Button (1m13.995s) was fourth quickest for Lucky Strike BAR Honda ahead of Jarno Trulli (1m14.070s) with the second Renault and Juan Pablo Montoya (1m14.172s) in the first of the BMW Williams F1 Team cars.

Panasonic Toyota Racing Technical Director Chassis Mike Gascoyne summed up qualifying: "As we often see here it was a close qualifying session and we are about where we expected to be. Cristiano put a good lap together but Olivier will have to start his home race a little further back on the grid. Even so I think it's realistic to aim for points with both cars."