As Formula 1 re-assembled in Magny Cours after the fall-out from the Indianapolis fiasco, Panasonic Toyota Racing had a trouble-free opening day of practice for the French Grand Prix, round 10 of this season’s Formula 1 World Championship.

The French race saw the return of Olivier Panis in the role of third, ‘Friday’ driver, the 38-year-old Frenchman enjoying the opportunity of assisting the race team in front of his home supporters.

Panis finished the two Friday sessions sixth quickest overall, lapping the 4.411kms Magny-Cours circuit in 1m15.483s. The pace setter once again was West McLaren Mercedes test driver Pedro de la Rosa, who recorded 1m14.460s.

“It was great to be back as part of the race team,” Panis said. “I have a lot of experience at Magny-Cours, where conditions change considerably as the day develops. You have to bear that in mind when you are making the tyre choice. I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed myself and I think we should be in decent shape for the rest of the weekend.”

Race drivers Jarno Trulli (1m15.774s) and Ralf Schumacher (1m15.925s) were 9th and 11th respectively overall. Behind De la Rosa, McLaren’s Juan Pablo Montoya (1m15.129s) was second quickest, ahead of Fernando Alonso’s Mild Seven Renault (1m15.183s). Michael Schumacher (1m15.204s) was fourth fastest for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella (1m15.255s) with the second Renault and Takuma Sato’s Lucky Strike BAR Honda (1m15.530s).

“It was a pretty straightforward day,” Trulli said, “Magny-Cours is quite a technical circuit and I was satisfied with the car’s balance.”

Ralf Schumacher added: “We had no problems but the tyre choice is not clear cut. We will have to make a careful evaluation of all our data.”

Technical Director, Chassis, Mike Gascoyne said: “It was a typical Friday really, with no unforeseen problems interrupting our programme. That’s quite important here because as the circuit conditions alter, you want to be able to collate as much information as possible. Magny-Cours tends to expose any grip problems fairly quickly. The track surface is very smooth and it’s important to have good aerodynamic performance. Overall, we had a good day and we can set our sights on the podium again.”