03/07/2004

Grand Prix of France - Qualifying Round-Up

Cristiano da Matta (Car 16 Chassis TF104/04)
Pre-Qualifying: 10th
Lap Time: 1m14.245s (+0.868s)
Qualifying: 11th
Lap Time: 1m14.553s (+0.855s)
Grid Position: 11th
"This weekend we have been more competitive than I think we expected to be but I am certainly not going to complain about that! I am happy with my qualifying lap this afternoon. The balance of the car was good although I had a bit of understeer on my first qualifying run which we managed to dial out for the second session. I really don't think I could have found more time from the car and even if I was holding out for a top ten result eleventh place with our strategy puts us in good shape to pick up some points in the race."

Olivier Panis (Car 17 Chassis TF104/03)
Pre-Qualifying: 11th
Lap Time: 1m14.540s (+1.163s)
Qualifying: 14th
Lap Time: 1m15.130s (+1.432s)
Grid Position: 14th
"I am not particularly pleased with qualifying today. Throughout my lap I had some bottoming and then I lost some grip in the last sector. In the end I will start from 14th but we cannot change anything about it now. Instead we just have to improve the car for tomorrow because it is a long and hard race here in Magny-Cours. I will continue to do my best in front of all the French spectators and hopefully our strategy will allow me to make up some ground."

Mike Gascoyne - Technical Director Chassis
"It was a close and exciting qualifying session and I think we can be reasonably content with the outcome. Cristiano did a good lap and will line up pretty much where we expected to be on the grid. Olivier lost a bit of time in the last sector so unfortunately he will start his home race a couple of places further back. I don't think we have anything to be concerned about and we have to look to get both cars in the points tomorrow after what has been a pleasantly encouraging weekend for Toyota."