11/06/2005
NEWS STORY
Panasonic Toyota Racing's drivers Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher will both line up in the top ten for tomorrow's Canadian Grand Prix after today's qualifying session. On another scorching day at Montreal, Jarno and Ralf took 9th and 10th places respectively on the grid. The team will now head into Sunday's race with the intention of getting both cars into the points as it bids to maintain its position in the top three of the constructors' championship.
Jarno Trulli lapped the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in 1m 16.201s, good enough for 9th place on the grid for tomorrow's race. He will be giving everything to keep his third place in the drivers' championship with more points on Sunday.
Jarno Trulli: "I missed out on some running in the morning sessions due to an electronics problem, so I'm satisfied with the lap, which was a pretty good one for me. I was struggling to get heat into the tyres during the warm-up lap, but I did my best. The Canadian Grand Prix has always been quite a hard one for us, but I remain pretty confident for tomorrow's race. Grid position here can change a lot based on what strategy you're running so let's see what we can manage."
Ralf Schumacher was the third driver out today so he missed the best track conditions. But he overcame that problem to join Jarno on the fifth row for Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix.
Ralf Schumacher: "That was a decent lap and I'm relatively happy with how it went for me. It was a bit difficult to go out so early in the session because the track was obviously going to improve throughout. As for the track itself, you could feel slightly less grip where they had laid the concrete but it was not a big issue. The bigger problem was that the work they did meant the circuit was slightly dirty again. But we made the best of what we could and we will now look to convert this position into points in tomorrow's race."
Panasonic Toyota Racing will look to bring both cars home in the points at tomorrow's Canadian Grand Prix after they took over the fifth row of the grid.
Dieter Gass – Chief Race Engineer: "Having two drivers in the top ten gives us a good chance in the race tomorrow. It means we can fight for a decent finish. We would obviously have hoped to have Jarno a little further up the grid but the electronics problem we had on his car during this morning's practice sessions didn't help him finalise his set-up and gain the right confidence in the car. So that made qualifying difficult for him. It was also very difficult for Ralf to go out so early because the circuit was improving a lot throughout the session. So I think his lap was also quite good in the conditions. We're confident about our strategy for tomorrow so we'll look for another positive finish. A double points finish is what we have to target and that is certainly realistic from where we are."