11/07/2004

Grand Prix of Great Britain - Race Report

Panasonic Toyota Racing had to be satisfied with a 13th place from Cristiano da Matta in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone after Olivier Panis retired from the race after just 16 laps.

Da Matta completed the opening lap 12th the same as his qualifying position and raced hard throughout. The Brazilian adopted a two-stop strategy pitting on laps 15 and 37 of the 60-lap race. Unfortunately Formula 1's impressive reliability record throughout the field was apparent once again and Da Matta could not return the team any points in what was the last race for the TF104 chassis in its current configuration.

"The timing of the Safety Car 15 laps from the end was unfortunate for us because it allowed the three-stopping cars to make their final stops without losing much time Da Matta explained. That meant that I basically lost a lap to Marc Gene and Takuma Sato with whom I had been fighting. You can never be happy with 13th place but I think I drove a good race today."

For Panis the weekend started badly when he was adjudged to have held up one of the Sauber drivers on its qualifying lap for which he was moved to the back of the grid.

"It was a lack of communication with the team and an accident for which I was sorry he explained, but I was annoyed about the decision to delete my qualifying time. It obviously meant that my race was compromised right from the start even though I started 17th in the end with the Minardis forced to start behind me.

"I did the best I could but then when my fire extinguisher exploded in the car it really was a typically bad end to a sorry weekend. The spray went everywhere all over my visor and the steering wheel and I ended up in the gravel trap. We are all now looking ahead to Hockenheim when hopefully the new TF104B will provide us with our first step towards closing the gap to Formula 1's leading competitors. McLaren showed today how comprehensively things can be turned around. Even if it is too much to hope for a step like that we should at least make significant progress."

The race brought Michael Schumacher his 80th Grand Prix win with Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro team mate Rubens Barrichello finishing the race in third place after the Safety Car period followed a high speed accident to Jarno Trulli from which the Italian was fortunate to emerge unscathed. Kimi Raikkonen's West McLaren Mercedes split the Ferraris while British hero Jenson Button finished fourth for Lucky Strike BAR Honda. Juan Pablo Montoya took fifth position for the BMW Williams F1 Team ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella who drove a strong race for Sauber Petronas having started from the pit lane after an engine change. The final points were taken by David Coulthard in the second McLaren and by Mark Webber for Jaguar Racing.

Technical Director Chassis Mike Gascoyne said: "That was another difficult race when things conspired against us. Olivier was the only one to take the softer compound Michelin tyre but they did not perform for him in his first stint and then the fire extinguisher problem put paid to his chances. We will have the updated car in Hockenheim in a fortnight but the race will be something of a test session for us because although we will be able to do a shakedown next week many of the parts will be on the car for the first time at the German race."
A shadow was cast across the Silverstone weekend by the death on Friday evening of Minardi sporting director John Walton 47 after a heart attack. As a mark of respect both Minardis ran without any sponsorship identification and the simple words 'John Boy' on the car - the nickname by which the popular Walton was universally recognised in the F1 paddock.

Testing resumes in Jerez and Paul Ricard next week where the Panasonic Toyota Racing team will be laying firm foundations in preparation for one its more local events the German Grand Prix at the Hockenheimring.