Panasonic Toyota Racing featured heavily in an F1 football match against a team of professionals and local celebrities. The F1 fraternity emerged victorious with Jarno Trulli part of a strong Italian contingent which scored six of the eight goals between them in an 8–3 win. A special commendation, however, goes to Toyota doctor Riccardo Ceccarelli who played a mean game in defence. He had the advantage of being able to immediately treat those who were on the other end of his tackling!

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Felipe Massa claimed a hat–trick of Turkish Grand Prix wins and moved into joint second position in the world championship when he won the race from pole position. Massa and Ferrari team–mate Kimi Raikkonen used the softer Bridgestone Potenza tyre for the first two stints of the race, in isolation among the front runners. The pair was split by Lewis Hamilton in the race and Massa admitted: “It’s great to win again here, I think I’d probably be eligible for Turkish passport now! But it was a hard race and if I had to make the decision again, I think I’d go with the harder tyre.”

Lewis Hamilton reckoned that his second place for McLaren Mercedes was the best drive of his short Grand Prix career. Hamilton found that, unlike team–mate Heikki Kovalainen, he could not make the softer compound his right front tyre last over a race distance on a two–stop strategy, and thus elected to race the harder tyre for all but the final stint of a three–stop race. “I got the best out of the car today and when we consider that my predicted race finish was fifth, I have to be more than happy with second.”

Heikki Kovalainen passed the necessary medical tests after his accident in the previous race in Spain and claimed his first ever front row starting position. He then suffered a left rear puncture when he made contact with countryman Kimi Raikkonen at Turn 1. After a charging drive back through the field, Kovalainen finished 12th, after two exciting tussles with Timo, who defended his position sternly.

RACE REPORT

Panasonic Toyota Racing came away from the Turkish Grand Prix, round five of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship, without points after a very closely fought battle among the top 10. Jarno Trulli finished the race in 10th place and team–mate Timo Glock crossed the line 13th.

Jarno maintained his 100% record of qualifying in the top 10 when he lined up eighth and Timo was also on course to make it through to the qualifying shoot–out for the third time in five starts for Toyota but, unfortunately, suffered a problem with a front right wheel drive peg. Having done a strong first run, he was forced to back off, which condemned him to starting 15th.

Jarno’s race was compromised when he was nudged at the first corner and lost three positions on the opening lap.

“The midfield is very closely-matched and once that happens you are in trouble,” Jarno explained. “You can keep pace with the car in front but as soon as you try to get close enough to overtake, you lose the downforce. For the whole race I was trying to find a way past Coulthard’s Red Bull but it was not to be. I was pushing like mad but there was nothing more I could do.”

Jarno ran a two-stop race, stopping on laps 20 and 48. Timo, meanwhile, ran the equal longest stint of all, 31 laps, and pitted just the once.

“I had strong pace today but, as we suspected after my problem in qualifying, it was a frustrating race because of the traffic. I didn’t make the best start and then I had to avoid Fisichella and Nakajima. I was definitely quicker than Barrichello’s Honda in the first stint but there was no way I could get by. The result was not there today but the level of performance was encouraging and I look forward to the challenge of Monte Carlo.”

Team Principal Tadashi Yamashina surmised: “There is still a big gap between our performance and that of the front teams so that is the main reason for our result. Of course Timo was not helped by his mechanical problem in qualifying. Then both cars lost ground at the start so we will have to investigate that further when we get back to the factory. Those issues meant that the two cars were stuck in traffic for most of the race. But now we must improve our performance and aim for a better result next time.”