04/07/2004

Grand Prix of France - Race Report

Panasonic Toyota Racing drivers Cristiano da Matta and Olivier Panis finished the French Grand Prix in 14th and 15th places after a tough afternoon at Magny Cours.

Panis who had problems with his car bottoming out in qualifying had a doubly difficult race after problems getting the car off the starting line which relegated him to last place on the opening lap.

"I had trouble with the clutch and the anti-stall system kicked in which was not ideal!" the Frenchman explained. "It's not exactly the start you want to have in your home Grand Prix. I managed to pass a couple of cars early in the race but after that there was little I could do. We were not quick enough but we must focus ahead to Silverstone in a week's time."

Team mate Cristiano da Matta found that his car did not handle as well as it had in qualifying when the team had looked competitive possibly a result of much higher track temperatures on race day. The current rules of course mean that teams cannot alter their car settings between qualifying and the race.

"I really think that the weather hurt us quite a lot today considering the way the car was set up he said. I know it was the same for everyone but the way we had configured the car I think it probably had a greater impact on us. The car was a lot slower than it had been on either of the practice days and I think we will have to have quite a close look at the data to understand what caused the performance drop-off."

Michael Schumacher scored his ninth win in 10 starts this year and his 60th win for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro. A strong early challenge from Fernando Alonso's Mild Seven Renault forced the team to switch onto a four-stop strategy with which they still managed to win. Alonso finished second ahead of Rubens Barrichello in the second Ferrari who passed Jarno Trulli's Renault on the last lap. Jenson Button took fifth place for Lucky Strike BAR Honda ahead of David Coulthard who debuted the McLaren-Mercedes MP4-19B. Coulthard narrowly beat team mate Kimi Raikkonen and the final point was taken by the BMW Williams F1 Team's Juan Pablo Montoya.

The European F3 championship had a place on the French GP support programme which gave Toyota junior drivers Franck Perera Katsuyuki Hiranaka and Roberto Streit an opportunity to take a first hand look at Formula 1 and to perform on the big stage. All three drivers race for the Prema Powerteam. In the first race on Saturday Streit finished seventh with Frenchman Perera coming home eighth in the second encounter on Sunday adding three valuable points to the team challenge.

The team now looks ahead to the special F1 demonstration in London's Regent St on Tuesday followed by the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. Cristiano da Matta will be driving the TF103 from last year and has the honour of being the first driver to take to the streets of London in an F1 car. Former drivers Nigel Mansell and Martin Brundle are scheduled to make their F1 return driving a Jordan and Jaguar respectively at the one-off event on Tuesday.