10/07/2004

Grand Prix of Great Britain - Qualifying Round-Up

Cristiano da Matta (Car 16 Chassis TF104/04)
Pre-Qualifying: 8th
Lap Time: 1m22.507s (+3.635s)
Qualifying: 14th
Lap Time: 1m20.545s (+2.312s)
Grid Position: 12th
"I think we should be quite content with the results of my qualifying today. The pace we had this afternoon is more or less what we have had all weekend. I had a bit more understeer and struggled more on the slower speed parts of the track but on the other hand the car handled better on the high speed compared to this morning's practice. The weather in Britain is very changeable and unpredictable but I hope it stays dry for the race. If we have some luck I think we could pick up a couple of points."

Olivier Panis (Car 17 Chassis TF104/03)
Pre-Qualifying: 3rd
Lap Time: 1m19.697s (+0.825s)
Qualifying: 12th
Lap Time: 1m20.335s (+2.102s)
Grid Position: 19th
"I am obviously very disappointed and upset that my time in qualifying was cancelled. I pushed very hard and did the best that I could with the car. With the strategy we have in place for tomorrow I think we performed well. A mistake in communication from the team meant that I only saw Massa late but I immediately moved over and offline. I am sorry for the Sauber team because it was not intentional and I did all I could not to impede his lap. I am very annoyed at the decision from the stewards. Tomorrow's race will now be very hard but I will push all the way as I always do."

Mike Gascoyne - Technical Director Chassis
"The team has to apologise to Olivier for not ensuring that he was fully informed of Massa's position on the track however he immediately moved offline and having reviewed the evidence in the stewards meeting we were sure that Massa could take the racing line and not be held up in any way. We are therefore very disappointed in the stewards' decision to disallow Olivier's time and we feel that the penalty is both too harsh and undeserved. I personally think this is true given what happened in the first qualifying session where teams clearly deceived the public by not ensuring their drivers pushed to the limit. I hope the crowd was entertained by the second qualifying session because the first one was a disgrace in front the huge numbers of people who have turned up at Silverstone today. It is unbelievable that the fans are let down in such a way and then such a penalty was given to one of the few drivers who pushed hard and entertained the crowds in both qualifying sessions.!
I only hope Olivier can have a good race and score points tomorrow to make up for what was an extremely disappointing decision."

Tsutomu Tomita - Team Principal
"On behalf of all the Panasonic Toyota Racing team I would like to express our sorrow to learn of the recent and unexpected death of John Walton. We offer our condolences and sincere sympathy to the entire Minardi team and John's family at this traumatic time."