| Toyota Malaysian GP Web Report |
 |
|
| 19.03.2006 |
|
Panasonic Toyota Racing scored a hard-earned point in the Malaysian Grand Prix, round two of the 2006 Formula 1 World Championship. Ralf Schumacher adopted a three-stop strategy, pitting on laps 13, 22 and 38 of the 56-lap race. Team mate Jarno Trulli ran a two-stop strategy, meanwhile, and finished in ninth place, just out of the points. His car's handling was badly affected by a first lap incident.
Schumacher, after an engine failure on Saturday that was traced to an oil pump shaft, was forced to start from the back of the grid and drove a tremendous race. He went from 22nd to 13th on the first lap and then scored his point despite having to be switched onto an unplanned three-stop race when the team found the pneumatic consumption to be high.
"It was a shame that we had to start from the back because we had the pace to race very competitively," Schumacher said. "I made up a lot of ground early in the race, which was a very interesting one and I'm delighted to have scored our first point this year. You can't really expect that when you are starting last. The satisfying thing is that after our problems in Bahrain we got the car and the tyres working well here and our times in the race were strong. I recorded the sixth fastest lap of the race, just 0.04s slower than the best Ferrari lap and 0.08s from Jenson Button, who finished on the podium. We obviously want to get back onto the podium again as quickly as possible and this race was a step in the right direction."
Team made Trulli added: "I'm delighted for the whole team that Ralf scored a point today. I had the potential to finish in the points as well but I was hit at the start and it destroyed the car's balance. The diffuser was damaged, the same thing that happened to me in Hungary last year. After that I had very inconsistent handling, with understeer in slow corners and oversteer in the faster turns. Personally I go home empty-handed but the important thing is the progress we made as a team."
Malaysia brought the second successive '06 win for the Mild Seven Renault F1 team, but this time it was Italian Giancarlo Fisichella who was first past the chequered flag, beating team mate Fernando Alonso into second place. It was the first Renault 1-2 in F1 for 24 years. Jenson Button was third for Lucky Strike Honda, ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya's McLaren Mercedes. Felipe Massa and Michael Schumacher were fifth and sixth for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, with Jacques Villeneuve's BMW Sauber just beating Ralf to seventh place.
Technical Director, Chassis, Mike Gascoyne, said: "The race pace
from Ralf was very strong and to score a point from last on the grid was commendable, especially as we started him on a two-stop strategy rather than the three stops he made because of the high pneumatic consumption. Jarno's damaged diffuser prevented us from getting both cars into the points.
"You could see in the last part of the race, when Ralf was in free air, that he was as quick as anyone apart from the two Renaults. I think we were very competitive and had we qualified where we should have done we could have raced at the front of the field."
Gascoyne confirmed that the team had solved the tyre usage problems that meant such a difficult first race in Bahrain a week ago. In order to try to keep on top of the issue when track temperatures are colder, as expected in the upcoming Australian Grand Prix in a fortnight, the team will test with the race drivers at Paul Ricard this week. |
 |
|
|
| 1 |
G. Fisichella
|
Renault |
|
| 2 |
F.Alonso |
Renault |
|
| 3 |
J. Button
|
Honda |
|
| 4 |
J. Montoya
|
McLaren |
|
| 5 |
F. Massa
|
Ferrari |
|
| 6 |
M. Schumacher
|
Ferrari |
|
| 7 |
J. Villeneuve
|
Sauber |
|
| 8 |
R. Schumacher |
Toyota |
|
| |
|
more.. |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
