28/08/2004

Grand Prix of Belgium - Qualifying Report

Panasonic Toyota Racing driver Olivier Panis qualified a strong ninth quickest at a soaking Spa Francorchamps ahead of round 14 of the world championship at the fabulous Belgian circuit.

The weather conditions mirrored the expectations of team Technical Director Chassis Mike Gascoyne who pointed out yesterday that the team had opted for a harder dry weather tyre than their Michelin rivals in the expectation that it would be a better race tyre but without the downside of a slower qualifying time. The conditions of course meant that qualifying was run on wet weather tyres but race day is expected to be dry.

Panis was third to run and lapped in 1m59.552s but team mate Ricardo Zonta will start the race from the back of the grid. The Brazilian went off at the challenging Pouhon left-hander in pre-qualifying and first out in qualifying proper he did not feel confident in the conditions and lapped in 2m03.895s.

Conditions were something of a lottery and although the track was wet throughout the rain eased enough in the middle of the session to allow some cars to benefit from intermediate tyres rather than extreme wets. Conditions then worsened again towards the end of the session.

"I am very satisfied with the lap Panis said. I took it relatively easy in the pre-qualifying period because I did not want to risk damaging the car and I was nearly 3s quicker when it mattered. I am hopeful that we can have a good race from ninth on the grid and hopefully come away with some points."

Zonta meanwhile said: "It was very tough because the Friday practice sessions were dry and then the visibility was so bad that Saturday morning practice was cancelled and we ended up having just 15 minutes experience of the circuit in wet conditions before we had to qualify. Then I went off the track when I put the left rear over the kerb on the exit of Pouhon. The team managed to fix the car before my qualifying lap but they only had about eight minutes and some of the aero parts were missing. It felt quite twitchy and I did not have 100% confidence to attack the lap. You never want to start from the back but at least I should be able to pass people here."

Mild Seven Renault F1 Team driver Jarno Trulli was one of four drivers (along with team mate Fernando Alonso David Coulthard and Juan Pablo Montoya) who chose the intermediate Michelin tyre due to the rain easing midway through the session. The Italian took full advantage to lap in 1m56.232s and secured his second career pole position. Michael Schumacher (1m56.304s ran last in the session and narrowly missed the pole in his quest to seal a seventh world title. Alonso made it two Renaults in the first three with Coulthard fourth Giancarlo Fisichella fifth for Sauber Petronas and Rubens Barrichello completing the top six in the second Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro car.