Formula One news
Toyota team happy with qualifying result
25 September 2004 / Results / PhotosOlivier Panis today was able to qualify his Toyota in 8th position. Equalling Toyota's best qualifying result of the season. The team qualified in 8th also at the other new track, Bahrain, and at Indy. Ricardo Zonta will have to start Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix from 14h.
"I am quite happy to be eighth on the grid for tomorrow's race," said Panis. "With all three cars around the top ten in yesterday's free practice, we started the race weekend in a competitive way. The car has been looking consistent, although I had some trouble this morning with corner entry oversteer. We were unable to fix the problem immediately, but after the session I sat down with my engineers and checked the data. The changes we made to the car worked well for qualifying and I would like to say well done to everyone. Considering where we were this morning and where we are now, we have improved a lot. I am confident we can push hard in the race tomorrow."
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Ricardo Zonta commented: "I do not think that final result does justice to our performance so far this weekend. The grip level was much lower in qualifying compared to this morning's practice sessions. I made a small mistake at the hairpin when I locked the front wheels, but I lost a lot of time in the final sector. I am not starting as high up the grid as I expected, but we have been quite competitive in the practice sessions, running regularly inside of the top ten, so I hope our race preparations will pay off. I have some work to do in the early stages of the race to make my way up through the field."
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Mike Gascoyne, Toyota's Technical Director commented: "Overall a very tight qualifying session. Having struggled this morning with grip levels and with the balance of his car, Olivier did a great job. I think he can be satisfied with his qualifying performance. He equals his best result of the season, which incidentally was in Bahrain, the other new circuit on this season's calendar, and also Indianapolis. Ricardo was happier in the free practice sessions this morning, but a mistake under braking into turn ten on his qualifying lap cost him several tenths-of-a-second. The car has been strong over the long runs and we are confident of our race pace. However, it would have been nice to have both cars starting from the top ten, which should have been possible today."
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