Panis 7th For Toyota after Spanish GP Qualifying


TF104
By Toyota F1 Media
May 10 2004

Olivier panis would finish in an excellent seventh for Toyota after qualifying for the Spanish GP. Team-mate Da Matta was in eleventh. panis was confident about the improvements the team was making but fro Da Matta it was a case of trying to sort out some handling issues.

 
Spanish GP Saturday Qualifying
 
Grand Prix of Spain - Qualifying Round-Up
Saturday 8 May 2004

PanisOlivier Panis (Car 17, Chassis TF104/03)
Pre-Qualifying: 6th Lap Time: 1m16.168s (+0.594s)

Qualifying: 7th Lap Time: 1m16.313s (+1.291s) Grid Position: 7th

"My lap today was very good and the whole team has done a great job all weekend to fine tune the car to find those crucial tenths-of-a-second. We are improving step-by-step and everyone is very focussed on the job we have to do. We know that this circuit suits our car well, which we have shown in winter testing, and this qualifying result offers us a strong opportunity to score some points in tomorrow's race."

Da MattaCristiano da Matta (Car 16, Chassis TF104/04)
Pre-Qualifying: 14th
Lap Time: 1m16.758s (+1.184s)

Qualifying: 11th Lap Time: 1m17.038s (+2.016s) Grid Position: 11th

"I am not particularly pleased with my qualifying lap today. I suffered from a lot more understeer on my second run and I am sure the track and weather conditions in general were a contributing factor. I tried to compensate for the understeer from inside the car, but I pushed maybe too hard and overdrove the car a little bit. The bottom line is that we lost something from the first session to the second and we have to find out exactly what."

Carlos Sainz with MIke GascoyneMike Gascoyne - Technical Director Chassis:
"I think it has been a reasonable Saturday and a positive qualifying session for Toyota. Olivier did an excellent job having not participated in the second session this morning due to an electrical problem. Cristiano suffered from understeer on his second run and did not achieve the full potential, but overall I think we can be very happy with our grid positions and look forward to scoring points in tomorrow's race."

 
Driver Classification Chassis Best Lap Gap Laps

Free Practice Session 1
Ricardo Zonta 4th TF104/06 1m16.639s +0.981s 26
Olivier Panis 9th TF104/03 1m17.489s +1.831s 6
Cristiano da Matta 15th TF104/04 1m18.362s +2.704s 12

Free Practice Session 2
Ricardo Zonta 3rd TF104/06 1m16.360s +0.425s 37
Cristiano da Matta 10th TF104/04 1m16.833s +0.898s 24
Olivier Panis 11th TF104/03 1m16.925s +0.990s 23

Free Practice Session 3
Olivier Panis 7th TF104/03 1m16.721s +0.737s 6
Cristiano da Matta 10th TF104/04 1m17.252s +1.268s 8

Free Practice Session 4
Cristiano da Matta 10th TF104/04 1m15.895s +1.059s 18
Olivier Panis 18th TF104/03 1m18.392s +3.556s 5

Qualifying 1
Olivier Panis 6th TF104/03 1m16.168s +0.594s 3
Cristiano da Matta 14th TF104/04 1m16.758s +1.184s 3

Qualifying 2
Olivier Panis 7th TF104/03 1m16.313s +1.291s 3
Cristiano da Matta 11th TF104/04 1m17.038s +2.016s 3