24/09/2004

Grand Prix of China - Free Practice Report

The Formula 1 world has been stunned by the remarkable new facility in Shanghai scene of Sunday's inaugural Chinese Grand Prix. "We thought that Bahrain set new standards but this is even better still said a leading team principal as the Chinese organisers announced that all 150,000 tickets available to the public have sold out.

Shanghai is seen as a very important new market for Formula 1 and the new circuit complex, which reports say has cost more than $600 million to build, drew universal admiration from the Grand Prix teams.

It has been a good opening day for Panasonic Toyota Racing, with Ricardo Zonta (1m34.868s), Olivier Panis (1m34.870s) and Ryan Briscoe (1m34.881s) all evenly-matched. They finished ninth, 10th and 11th in the final classification at the end of Friday's practice.

It has been a good start for us with no problems Zonta said, and it is always exciting to be at a new circuit. We got through our tyre comparison the choice looks straightforward and I think we are in good shape."

Panis added: "The job they have done here is absolutely amazing and sets a new standard in terms of facilities. The track is also quite technical with the first corner in particular difficult to get right and to achieve precision. It looks like there is potential for overtaking as well. Overall we went well and the tyres looked competitive."

Briscoe who celebrated his 23rd birthday today continued to impress in his role as third driver: "It was a productive session the track is exciting and it's nice to be on a level playing field with nobody having any prior circuit experience the Australian said.

Fastest overall for the third time this season was BAR Honda test driver Anthony Davidson, who lapped in 1m33.289s. Team mate Jenson Button was second fastest (1m34.174s), ahead of the West McLaren Mercedes pair of Kimi Raikkonen (1m34.289s) and David Coulthard (1m34.362s). Rubens Barrichello (1m34.448s) was the quicker of the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro drivers, while Giancarlo Fisichella (1m34.680s) completed the top six for Sauber Petronas.

Technical Director, Chassis, Mike Gascoyne, surmised: Everybody did a good job today and I think we are a little bit more competitive than we expected. We aim to make sure it continues that way."