Thank you all for your support over the weekend. Here is my report on Sunday’s race at the Grand Prix of Europe

• Unexpected trouble right before the start
I can only apologize to the drivers and fans for what happened at today’s race. I can’t help but feel that we wasted a great opportunity with the pre-start trouble. Jarno was extremely disappointed, but I can assure you that the engineers, mechanics and everyone at TMG are even more disappointed. You can be sure that we will find the cause of the problem, and make sure it never happens again.

A signal one minute prior to the start of the formation lap lets the mechanics know that it’s time to start the engine. The mechanics insert an external starter to start the engine, and the process ends about 15 seconds before the start of the formation lap, at which point the rules say that all mechanics must leave the grid.

Unfortunately, today the starter used for Jarno’s engine malfunctioned, causing the team to take extra time to start the engine, and keeping them on the grid after the time allowed. The starter that is used in the garage is brought out to the grid to prevent trouble. When the car arrives on the grid, the engine is started once more, just to be sure. That same starter is used during the formation start, but today, it malfunctioned. This is an area we always double-check, so this kind of mistake is just incomprehensible.

The starter did turn, but it didn’t generate enough RPMs to start the car’s engine. After it was apparent that the starter wouldn’t work, we switched to the spare to start the engine, but we ran over the time allowed.

As a result, Jarno was assessed a drive through penalty. This wasn’t a mistake for which any individual could be blamed. We will look into the cause of the program, but we have to ensure that this kind of trouble never happens again. Jarno was in a position to drive a lot faster, but buried in the middle group of cars, he wasn’t able to drive as fast as he wanted. I feel like any apology we could make to Jarno would still not be enough to make up for the mistake.

Trulli, arriving at the starting grid.

• Ralf breaks his car’s nose right after the start
Ralf broke the nose of his car in an accident with another driver. We had the same basic pit strategy for both drivers, but when Ralf came into the pit to change his nose, we went ahead and added a little fuel. That’s the reason the timing diverged between Jarno and Ralf’s first fuel stop. There weren’t any balance issues with Ralf’s car, and he was able to run strong after the accident. He continued to push really hard during the second half of the race, but he got a little too much momentum, and slid off the course. I don’t think he could have done anything else in his situation.

Even though we came away with a point, I just don’t think it makes up for our frustration. Even if Raikkonen hadn’t run into trouble in the last lap, I think Jarno had more than enough potential to have made the podium today. Other cars seemed to have tire trouble, but the air pressure and every other indicator showed that our tires were fine through to the end. I feel like I’m repeating myself, but we wasted our drivers’ efforts, and I still can’t shake this feeling of frustration.

	Keizo Takahashi, checking out Ralf's car before the start.

• We remain competitive. We look forward to the next race.
Looking a which lap cars first pit-in during the race, you can pretty much guess how much fuel they had on board at the beginning, which is an indication about the performance of cars during qualifying. Judging by the lap times during the race, there is really only a small relative difference between Panasonic Toyota Racing and the other teams. In other words, McLaren is fast, then there’s Renault, and then there’s Panasonic Toyota Racing. We still have our work cut out for us.

We will come to the next two races—the Canadian and the United States—with a medium-class aero package, which we already have put together. We confirmed that the new spec engine in Jarno’s car functioned strongly to the end, and Ralf’s car will also have the new spec engine starting in Canada. Everything is ready to go. Now we just need a few breaks.

Thank you again for visiting the official Panasonic Toyota Racing website. We ask you for your continued support throughout the rest of the year.