Mixed Fortunes for Toyota at Monza

Finisher
By Phil Giles
September 15 2002

A strong showing in qualifying and warm up came to nought today when Allan McNish failed to finish and Mika Salo fell out of the points at the Italian Grand Prix.

McNish made an incredible start jumping from 13th to 7th in the firs lap, however the suspension caused a problem and by lap 13 he had retired from the race.

Mika made a good start, however after his pit stop, he crossed the pit exit line and was forced to come in again for a drive through penalty. This cost him a possible points scoring position and Mika eventually ended the race in 11th.

Allan:
“About four laps before I came into the pits the car started to wander quite badly under braking and I thought I had a problem, it did not seem too bad in corners which involved just turning in and running through, but at places where you had to change direction quickly, such as the Ascari chicane, it became very unstable. It was at the point where the rear tyres start to go off a little, so I wasn’t sure, but then the steering wheel started behaving strangely. I kept at it for a lap but then came in because it was getting dangerous.”

Mika:
“It was a pretty poor race. There was a bit of a scramble at the first corner and I got pushed onto the grass and lost a lot of places. Then my first set of tyres blistered and I had really big over steer.”

“As I left the pits after my stop I was concentrating too much on my mirrors and I put two wheels onto the white line and got a Drive Through penalty. That dropped me out of the points and after that I was pushing flat-out but it was not enough.”

Have your say on our Message Board

Was this Toyota's best performance of the season?