25.05.2008


Behind the scenes

Monaco is always a hectic weekend for everyone in the team, both on and off the track. With the paddock and garages separated by quite some distance, all team members walked more this weekend than any other race on the calendar. But there is also a more enjoyable side to Monaco and Panasonic Toyota Racing's drivers, top management and technical representatives all enjoyed a fine evening on Ebbon-Dacs' yacht on Monte Carlo's T-jetty on Friday. Monaco is the perfect place to showcase what Formula 1 is all about, and also the perfect place to show the team's appreciation of Ebbon-Dacs' partnership.

It was a busy weekend for Jarno, who not only made an appearance on the boat on Friday, but also took the opportunity to turn out for the drivers in another charity football match. In addition, he starred in a French TV feature riding a Yamaha bike around the principality's streets on Friday morning - but at least he got a new set of Alpinestars equipment of it.

News From Our Rivals

McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton moved back to the head of the World Championship table after achieving a lifetime's ambition and winning the Monaco Grand Prix. "It's the highlight of my life, no question," Hamilton said. "I have watched loads of the Monaco F1 races and even though I have won here in F3 and GP2, to come here and win the grand prix is a dream. Even though I hit the wall early in the race I was always confident that I could win."

Hamilton now has 38 points to defending champion Kimi Raikkonen's 35, Felipe Massa's 34 and Robert Kubica's 32. McLaren also moved into second place in the constructors' championship, where the score is Ferrari, 69, McLaren 53 and BMW Sauber 52. BMW Sauber driver Robert Kubica scored his second runner-up position of the season, repeating the feat he managed in Malaysia. The Pole said: "I think that second place was the most we could have achieved today and so I am happy. We are scoring consistent results and that is a good sign."

Team-mate Nick Heidfeld, however, failed to score for only the second time this year. He did not qualify in the top 10 and reported difficulty getting heat into his tyres. He was hit by Fernando Alonso early in the race, at Loews hairpin. Frank Williams celebrated his 600th Grand Prix in Monte Carlo. Although Ferrari has been a perpetual contestant in the world championship since its inception in 1950, Enzo Ferrari himself died in 1988 and so Sir Frank now has more F1 GPs to his name than any other team principal.

Adrian Sutil was distraught after driving a storming race for the Force India team. Sutil, who had not made a mistake all race, was set to finish fourth but was taken out by Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari with just nine laps to go. After the final Safety Car following an accident to Nico Rosberg, Raikkonen lost control of his Ferrari under braking for the harbour front chicane and collided with the Force India car.

Race Report

Panasonic Toyota Racing came away empty-handed from a dramatic Monaco Grand Prix, with Timo Glock and Jarno Trulli finishing the two-hour race in 12th and 13th positions. Formula 1's blue riband event was afflicted by unsettled weather all weekend and Jarno, a Monaco winner in 2004, reported a lack of grip even when the track was dry. He nevertheless managed to maintain his record of qualifying in the top 10 at every round so far, lining up eighth on the grid. Timo started 11th after missing out on a top 10 qualifying slot by just 0.07s. The race started on a wet track so Jarno therefore began on Bridgestone's wet Potenza tyre and was looking strong in the early laps, running sixth with Timo following in his wheel tracks.

When the Safety Car emerged early in the race, after David Coulthard's Red Bull and Sebastien Bourdais' Toro Rosso crashed at Massenet, the team took the opportunity to bring Jarno in, switch him to the extreme wet tyre. Timo, meanwhile, lost his front wing on lap four when he spun at Rascasse. There would be two more spins during an incident-packed race, one at Mirabeau and one at the harbour front chicane.

"That just wasn't a good day for me," Timo said. "It would have been possible to score points but I just made too many mistakes and I am sorry for the team. I made a good start and passed Webber on the run down to the first corner. Then I spun a couple of laps later and had to come in. We switched to extreme wets for the first stint but they became harder as the track dried. Soon after our pit stop the track dried out further and we pitted again for dry tyres. Then it was just about bringing the car home. We will hope for better next time."

At his planned pit stop, his second of the race, Jarno changed from extreme to standard wet tyres before switching to the option dry tyre at his final stop as a dry line emerged, but time lost in traffic earlier in the race meant he was unable to challenge for the points.

"This has been a hard weekend and it was one of those days when things just didn't work out for us," Jarno said. "At one stage it was raining really hard and we took the gamble to go on extreme wet tyres. That went well at the beginning because I was quicker and I did several good overtaking manoeuvres. But then the rain stopped and I was really struggling with extreme wets on a drying track. Unfortunately here you are always stuck in traffic and I lost a lot of positions during our pit stops. Towards the end of the race we put the dry tyres on and I brought the car home."

Chairman and Team Principal Tadashi Yamashina revealed a lot of work will be done back at the factory to ensure the team bounces back from the disappointment of missing out on points.

"If we had kept up the performance we had shown in qualifying we would have scored some good points," he said. "Instead it was a very difficult day. Both drivers made good starts and they were in good shape for the race early on. But then Timo did some spins which we were not expecting. Jarno also struggled for pace on the extreme wet tyres while the track dried and other cars made up ground. The drivers lacked confidence with the car here while our tyre change strategy was not suited for the weather we faced. So the race went against us in all possible areas and we have a lot to analyse. Now we must keep pushing to do better in Canada."