26/09/2004

Grand Prix of China - Race Report

Panasonic Toyota Racing came away from the sensational new Grand Prix circuit in Shanghai China with nothing to show for a weekend that promised much after Olivier Panis had qualified his TF104B in eighth place.

Once again though Panis suffered from startline problems and was down in 17th place at the end of the opening lap. The Frenchman did his best on a three-stop strategy but 14th was the most that he could salvage from the race. Team mate Ricardo Zonta meanwhile retired after 35 laps when he lost fifth gear.

"It is so frustrating after we were competitive all weekend and qualified so strongly Panis said. The anti-stall device kicked in on the grid and the car just would not get going. We will have to have a careful look at the data to see if we can establish the reason but it was a missed opportunity for everyone."

Zonta meanwhile made a strong start and was ninth at the end of the opening lap having qualified in 14th place.

"It was a great start!' the Brazilian enthused "and I was able to race with Coulthard's McLaren and Fisichella's Sauber at a very competitive pace. I think that one point is the minimum that we could have taken from today's race but it wasn't to be. I lost fifth gear after my last pit stop and had to come back to the pits. It was very disappointing."

Rubens Barrichello won his second successive race for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro as team mate Michael Schumacher started from the pit lane and finished 12th. Jenson Button was second for Lucky Strike BAR Honda ahead of leading West McLaren Mercedes driver Kimi Raikkonen. Fernando Alonso was fourth for the Mild Seven Renault F1 Team Juan Pablo Montoya fifth for the BMW Williams F1 Team and Takuma Sato sixth in the second BAR Honda. The Sauber Petronas cars of Giancarlo Fisichella and Felipe Massa completed the point scorers.

Technical Director Chassis Mike Gascoyne summed up the inaugural Chinese Grand Prix: "It has been an interesting weekend at a quite awesome new facility and although we were perhaps more competitive than we expected to be in terms of outright pace we sadly weren't able to convert the performance level into points. We don't know what happened with Olivier's problem at the start but it was not driver error and it was unfortunate after such a strong showing in qualifying."

Before Suzuka new Toyota signing Jarno Trulli who had his first experience of the TF104 at Silverstone recently will undertake a three-day test at Jerez from September 28-30. The regular race drivers are due to remain in Asia between the two races and so the team will recruit the services of Toyota Drivers Academy youngsters Frenchman Franck Perera and Japan's Katsuyuki Hiranaka to carry out aerodynamic testing at Vairano Italy on September 28/9.