By Nick Sparkes
May 22 2005

Panasonic Toyota Racing ended the weekend in the points, but it was a weekend of what might had been. Luckily for Ralf Schumacher he finished the weekend with a small reward for his days work whilst Jarno Trulli ended up outside of the points.

From the start everyone knew it would be a tough afternoon for the Toyota team. During the remaining 20 laps it looked as though the Panasonic Toyota Racing team would have two cars in the points, but an amazing move by Trulli bumping up the kerb to overtake Giancarlo Fisichella Renault left the Toyota driver touring into the pits. The remaining laps saw Ralf Schumacher defending his position from the two Ferrari's and as they came across the line for the final time, Michael Schumacher and Ralf Schumacher crossed the line 0.0 seconds a part, but it was Ralf who was awarded the 6th position. Jarno Trulli after his additional pit stop finished a lap behind in 10th.

The main incident was during the first half of the race, when one of the Minardi's spun into Mirabeau blocking the path for Red Bull's David Coulthard who was hit by Ferrari's Michael Schumacher. This left an M25 style traffic jam until a few 3 point turns left a small gap for the cars to weave through. During this time the Safely Car was deployed to clear up the mess.

Many of the drivers suffered from tyre wear in the second half of the Grand Prix, the two Renault's struggling with their rear tyres were the most noticeable examples. This lead to them dropping back, whilst the two Williams BMW's moved up onto the podium. But like in Barcelona, McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen took an unchallenged victory.

A full Toyota report will follow.