Race - Rd.3 Chinese Grand Prix
Chinese Grand Prix - Race Round-Up
19.04.2009
Panasonic Toyota Racing will leave China with two points after a hard day's work at the second rain-affected race of 2009. Following a dry week, the heavens opened just hours before the race, which started behind the safety car in the wet conditions. Timo Glock started from the pit lane with a heavy fuel load on wet Bridgestone tyres. He initially made up ground with a number of passing moves and he was up to 11th by the second safety car period. Unfortunately he sustained front wing damage and he was forced to come in for an early pit stop to change it on lap 24. The pit stop crew did a quick turnaround and he was fuelled to the end of the race. He dropped to the back again but he battled hard, passing more cars and bringing his TF109 home in 7th for two points. Jarno Trulli started in 6th place but struggled for grip in the wet conditions, losing ground before he was hit from behind by Robert Kubica's BMW on lap 17. He returned to the pits but the damage was too great to continue.
Timo Glock - Car 10, Chassis TF109-05
Grid: 19th
Race Classification: 7th (+1m 14.476s)
Pit Stop Lap: 24
"In the end we picked up more points from the pit lane so we have to be happy with that. But it was a very hard race, especially at the beginning. I was quite surprised when we started the race. When you're at the back of the field there is no chance to see anything and it's like driving blind. I made up some ground but I damaged my front wing when I touched Nick. It was so difficult to see, I misjudged my braking point and hit him on the back. That meant we had to bring our pit stop forward by a few laps to fix the damage. Later when I had a clear run for five or six laps I was pretty quick and on the pace but as soon as I caught Kimi I was stuck behind him. I couldn't see the standing water so I had to back off, particularly in the areas where you could overtake. In the end I got past and we were able to bring it home 7th."
Jarno Trulli - Car 9, Chassis TF109-04
Grid: 6th
Race Classification: DNF
Pit Stop Lap: 18
"That was not a good day for me. The conditions were very difficult, there was a lot of standing water and lots of aquaplaning. When the safety car came in I made a solid start and my pace was okay in the early laps. But then I started struggling for grip, the pace just wasn't there and the longer it went on the more ground I lost. On lap 17 I just felt a big hit from behind and I lost my rear wing. I made it back to the pits but we couldn't continue. Still, my pace yesterday shows we're close the front so now we must hope for better fortunes in Bahrain next weekend."
Tadashi Yamashina - Team Principal
"Timo didn't quite put together his last qualifying run yesterday but he never gave up. Today he twice found himself at the back of the field but he showed great spirit to overtake so many cars and bring home two points. Jarno struggled to make the most of his strong grid position today so we will have to check the data to find out what went wrong. Still, his qualifying performance was good so I'm sure he will do his best to make the podium again at the next race. We still have our spirit to win and we will fight again in Bahrain next week."
- Free Practice 1
- Free Practice 2
- Free Practice 3
- Qualify
- Race
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
| {myDatabase01::pos} | {myDatabase01::no} | {myDatabase01::driver} | {myDatabase01::team} | {myDatabase01::time} | {myDatabase01::laps} |
{myDatabase07::attention_practice1}
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
| {myDatabase02::pos} | {myDatabase02::no} | {myDatabase02::driver} | {myDatabase02::team} | {myDatabase02::time} | {myDatabase02::laps} |
{myDatabase07::attention_practice2}
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
| {myDatabase03::pos} | {myDatabase03::no} | {myDatabase03::driver} | {myDatabase03::team} | {myDatabase03::time} | {myDatabase03::laps} |
{myDatabase07::attention_practice3}
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Team | First | Second | Third | Laps |
| {myDatabase04::pos} | {myDatabase04::no} | {myDatabase04::driver} | {myDatabase04::team} | {myDatabase04::first} | {myDatabase04::second} | {myDatabase04::third} | {myDatabase04::laps} |
{myDatabase07::attention_qualify}
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Team | Laps | Time | Gap | Kph | Best | Lap |
| {myDatabase05::pos} | {myDatabase05::no} | {myDatabase05::driver} | {myDatabase05::team} | {myDatabase05::laps} | {myDatabase05::time} | {myDatabase05::gap} | {myDatabase05::kph} | {myDatabase05::best} | {myDatabase05::lap} |
{myDatabase07::attention_race}
| Not Classified (DNF : Did Not Finish) | |||||||||
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Team | Laps | Time | Gap | Kph | Best | Lap |
| {myDatabase06::td01} | {myDatabase06::td02} | {myDatabase06::td03} | {myDatabase06::td04} | {myDatabase06::td05} | {myDatabase06::td06} | {myDatabase06::td07} | {myDatabase06::td08} | {myDatabase06::td09} | {myDatabase06::td10} |
