Difficult qualifying for Toyota F1 in France


Da Matta

By Toyota F1 Media
July 4 2004

The Toyota F1 team would see their drivers finish in 11th & 14th grdi positions for the French Grand Prix. Da Matta would lead his team-mate Olivier Panis. Panis was not pleased with his lap but Da Matta felt that it was the best he could have achieved with his car.

 
French GP Qualifying Round-up
 
Grand Prix of France - Qualifying Round-Up
Saturday 3 July 2004

PanisOlivier Panis (Car 17, Chassis TF104/03)
Pre-Qualifying: 11th
Lap Time: 1m14.540s (+1.163s)


Qualifying: 14th
Lap Time: 1m15.130s (+1.432s)
Grid Position: 14th

"I am not particularly pleased with qualifying today. Throughout my lap, I had some bottoming and then I lost some grip in the last sector. In the end, I will start from 14th but we cannot change anything about it now. Instead, we just have to improve the car for tomorrow because it is a long and hard race here in Magny-Cours. I will continue to do my best in front of all the French spectators and hopefully our strategy will allow me to make up some ground."

Da MattaCristiano da Matta (Car 16, Chassis TF104/04)
Pre-Qualifying: 10th
Lap Time: 1m14.245s (+0.868s)

Qualifying: 11th
Lap Time: 1m14.553s (+0.855s)
Grid Position: 11th

"This weekend, we have been more competitive than I think we expected to be, but I am certainly not going to complain about that! I am happy with my qualifying lap this afternoon. The balance of the car was good, although I had a bit of understeer on my first qualifying run, which we managed to dial out for the second session. I really don't think I could have found more time from the car and even if I was holding out for a top ten result, eleventh place with our strategy puts us in good shape to pick up some points in the race."

Mike Gascoyne - Technical Director Chassis:
"It was a close and exciting qualifying session and I think we can be reasonably content with the outcome. Cristiano did a good lap and will line up pretty much where we expected to be on the grid. Olivier lost a bit of time in the last sector so unfortunately he will start his home race a couple of places further back. I don't think we have anything to be concerned about and we have to look to get both cars in the points tomorrow after what has been a pleasantly encouraging weekend for Toyota."

 
Driver Classification Chassis Best Lap Gap Laps

Free Practice Session 1
Cristiano da Matta 10th TF104/04 1m26.757s +11.270s 5
Olivier Panis 11th TF104/03 1m27.449s +11.962s 4
Ricardo Zonta 13th TF104/07 1m29.085s +13.598s 18

Free Practice Session 2
Cristiano da Matta 1st TF104/04 1m15.518s Fastest 12
Olivier Panis 11th TF104/03 1m17.303s +1.785s 10
Ricardo Zonta 15th TF104/07 1m17.735s +2.217s 15

Free Practice Session 3
Olivier Panis 5th TF104/03 1m15.478s +0.534s 14
Cristiano da Matta 11th TF104/04 1m16.384s +1.440s 17

Free Practice Session 4
Olivier Panis 6th TF104/03 1m14.883s +0.370s 23
Cristiano da Matta 7th TF104/04 1m14.885s +0.372s 22

Qualifying 1
Cristiano da Matta 10th TF104/04 1m14.245s +0.868s 3
Olivier Panis 11th TF104/03 1m14.540s +1.163s 3

Qualifying 2
Cristiano da Matta 11th TF104/04 1m14.553s +0.855s 3
Olivier Panis 14th TF104/03 1m15.130s +1.432s 3
 

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