| Toyota Sunday Web Report |
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| 25.06.2006 |
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Jarno Trulli scored his first points of the 2006 season when he finished sixth in the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal as the F1 season reached its halfway point in North America.
Trulli built on Panasonic Toyota Racing’s best qualifying performance of the season when he started his TF106B fourth on the grid. He drove a hard race interrupted by two Safety Car periods and scored a top six finish, losing positions only to the Ferraris of Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa, the latter making just one fuel stop.
“That was a good result for everyone in the team,” Trulli said. “We have been pushing hard to make progress and everything went well. I made a better start than we have had recently and really enjoyed the race, although the track conditions were difficult with quite a lot of dust and tyre rubber on the track at various stages. My only problem was an engine misfire from halfway but we were able to make the finish. It is satisfying to see the chequered flag after losing out on points and podiums earlier in the season. Hopefully I can go on from here and have a strong second half of the season.”
Team mate Ralf Schumacher, meanwhile, had a difficult afternoon that involved no fewer than five visits to the pits and an eventual retirement after 58 of the 70 laps. Starting 14th on the grid, Ralf experienced balance problems all weekend and started to lose grip towards the end of the first stint.
“To make matters worse I received a Drive Through penalty for speeding in the pits at my first stop and that dropped me a long way behind,” he explained. “Then, later on, the car started to lack grip and I went straight on twice in Turn 10. I came in to change tyres after the second time but the car still felt strange and so, with nothing at stake, we took the safe option to retire the car and make a proper examination.”
Championship leader Fernando Alonso won his fourth successive grand prix for Mild Seven Renault, opening up a 25 point advantage over Michael Schumacher at the top of the championship table. Schumacher finished second for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, passing Kimi Raikkonen’s McLaren Mercedes in the closing stages after the Finn went straight on at Turn 10. Giancarlo Fisichella finished fourth ahead of Brazilian Felipe Massa. Behind Jarno, Nick Heidfeld and David Coulthard claimed the final championship points for BMW Sauber and Red Bull Racing respectively.
Senior General Manager, Chassis, Pascal Vasselon, summarised: “Jarno had a really strong weekend and it is great to see him finally receive some reward. Ralf had a very different type of race with grip problems throughout. We felt that we needed to stop him because there was a significant lack of grip and he twice went straight on at Turn 10.
On such a high speed circuit and with nothing to be gained, we took no chances.”
The championship now heads straight to Indianapolis for the US Grand Prix next weekend.
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| 1 |
F. Alonso |
Renault |
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| 2 |
M. Schumacher
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Ferrari |
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| 3 |
K. Raikkonen
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McLaren |
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| 4 |
G. Fisichella
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Renault |
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| 5 |
F. Massa
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Ferrari |
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| 6 |
J. Trulli
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Toyota |
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| 7 |
N. Heidfeld |
Sauber |
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| 8 |
D. Coulthard |
Red Bull |
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