Formula One news

Toyota feeling more competitive in France

Cristiano da Matta and Olivier Panis qualified eleventh and fourteenth respectivel for the French Grand Prix.

"This weekend, we have been more competitive than I think we expected to be, but I am certainly not going to complain about that!" said da Matta. "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."

Olivier Panis commented, "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."

Mike Gascoyne - Technical Director Chassis added, "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."

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