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Rd.15 Grand Prix of Italy press release
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Italian Grand Prix - Qualifying Round-Up
Panasonic Toyota Racing will line up for tomorrow's Italian Grand Prix with two cars in the top ten of the grid after a strong performance in this afternoon's qualifying. On a sunny day at Monza, Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher recorded the 6th and 10th fastest laps of a competitive session. Both drivers will move up a place on the grid ·to 5th and 9th respectively ·because of the penalty for Raikkonen's engine change. With both cars on the clean side of the grid, Toyota will now head into Sunday's race aiming for another points finish from both drivers. The team currently stands in 4th place in the constructors' championship with 71 points and it is confident of increasing that total tomorrow.
03/9/2005

IDEAL HOME SHOW
Jarno Trulli put in yet another scintillating qualifying lap to take 5th on the grid for his home race tomorrow, keeping up his impressive haul of top five grid slots in 2005.

Jarno Trulli (Car 16, Chassis TF105/07)




GRID: 5th
First Practice Classification: 12th
Lap Time: 1m24.129s (+1.714s) Laps: 5
Second Practice Classification: 5th
Lap Time: 1m21.884s (+0.968s) Laps: 14
Qualifying Classification: 6th
Lap Time: 1m21.640s (+0.762s) Laps: 3

"I was not expecting to be so quick or to be able to put together a lap time like that. You have to be very precise with your braking here, so to get it right in qualifying when you only have one lap is very difficult. But the car behaved well and the lap was clean, smooth and just aggressive enough. We have a good strategy for the race, so I am confident we can convert this into a good result. It is always special to be at home with so many supporters, and I have always been competitive here but I have not had much luck, so I hope to turn that around tomorrow."

ASCARI SPICE
Ralf Schumacher made it into the top ten in qualifying for tomorrow's Italian Grand Prix at Monza despite a relatively early qualifying run. The performance sets him up for a chance of his 10th points finish of the season.

Ralf Schumacher (Car 17, Chassis TF105/05)




GRID: 9th
First Practice Classification: 9th
Lap Time: 1m23.898s (+1.483s) Laps: 9
Second Practice Classification: 14th
Lap Time: 1m22.710s (+1.794s) Laps: 11
Qualifying Classification: 10th
Lap Time: 1m22.266s (+1.388s) Laps: 3

"That was a pretty good lap from me, particularly because I had some trouble finalising my set-up this morning. We made a set-up change in the break before qualifying and that was a help. I didn't feel totally comfortable over the kerbs but it was a clean lap and I had no particular problems. Our grid position certainly leaves us in good shape to chase another strong points finish tomorrow."

RACY MILAN
After a strong qualifying session, Panasonic Toyota Racing is aiming for a double points finish in tomorrow's Italian Grand Prix at Monza, situated just outside the city of Milan.

Mike Gascoyne - Technical Director Chassis

"It's always nice to have both cars in the top ten so that was quite a pleasing qualifying result. Jarno was reasonably happy with his car all weekend and he managed to put together a good lap in qualifying. Ralf was less happy with his car after this morning's free practice, but he made some changes which improved the car slightly for qualifying. We've aimed our strategy firmly at having a good race tomorrow, so given our starting positions and the pace we've shown all weekend we can be fairly confident for a strong points finish tomorrow or maybe even a podium."