Toyota's Olivier Panis describes an Imola lap

Forget Brazil
By Huw Alban (15/04/03)
April 15 2003

The popular F1 news site, F1-Live.com, has scooped an exclusive it appears from Olivier Panis describing his typical lap around the Imola circuit. Kirbs, it appears, are very important to a competitive lap time according to the Frenchman.

"It's always good to get back to Europe after the first three long-haul races. Imola is a great circuit to kick-off the European season and once again we run anti-clockwise like in Brazil. The track is interesting and the atmosphere is quite thrilling.

"We start on the pit straight, which is a short straight where we get up to top gear and speeds of about 270kmh. The first chicane is Tamburello, which requires very heavy braking and which you pass through in 3rd gear.

"Then there is a small straight where you move through the gears up to 6th, then into the 2nd chicane - the Villeneuve chicane - which you pass through in 4th gear. It's quite bumpy and there isn't very good grip through the corner, so you need to be very careful. After the Villeneuve chicane there is another small straight before the Tosa corner, which is a very long hairpin that you go through in 2nd gear.

"Then the track goes uphill into the high speed Piratella corner, which you pass through in 4th gear, before it goes down very steeply into Aqua Minerale. This is a difficult corner because you arrive so quickly and you need to brake while you turn but it's very important to take this corner well as it sets you up for the following straight into the Variante Alta chicane. On this chicane you go very high on the curb, and the car jumps a lot, but you need to take the curb high to make a good lap time.

"The back straight is very long and here the track also goes downhill. This part of the circuit is very hard from a braking point of view as you then arrive in the Rivazza, which is a double left hander, where it is very important to take a good line as the grip level is not very good. After that there is the Variante Bassa straight before the last chicane, Traguardo. Again, it is very important to take a good line through the exit to prepare for the final straight, but it's always very dirty because everybody goes over the curb and puts dust onto the track. To get a good lap time you need to make a good exit from this last chicane."