18/06/2005
NEWS STORY
Jarno Trulli will lead the field away in tomorrow's United States Grand Prix after securing the third pole position of his Formula One career – and a first for Panasonic Toyota Racing. The Italian also maintained Michelin's unbroken run of nine F1 poles this season. He lapped the 4.192- kilometre (2.605-mile) track in 1m 10.625s – the fastest time of the weekend so far – to pip Canadian GP winner Kimi Raikkonen by just 0.069s.
Jenson Button and Giancarlo Fisichella completed a Michelin clean sweep of the top four with as many different chassis. World championship leader Fernando Alonso was quickest of the remaining Michelin runners, ahead of Takuma Sato, Mark Webber, Felipe Massa, Juan Pablo Montoya, Jacques Villeneuve, Ricardo Zonta, Christian Klien, Nick Heidfeld and David Coulthard.
Pierre Dupasquier, Michelin motorsport director: "In terms of pure performance, it is clear that our tyres are well suited to the Indianapolis circuit and it is very gratifying to see four different Michelin chassis filling the first two rows of the grid.
"Following yesterday's incidents, however, we still have work to complete before the start of the race, for the reasons outlined below. Whatever happens, I can assure you that like the other participants in motorsport Michelin will always propose a product respecting the needs of total security and independent of any rules."
Nick Shorrock, Director of Michelin F1 activities: "As previously explained we are still continuing our investigations into yesterday's tyre incidents. This consists of full examinations of all the tyres that ran on Friday and those from Saturday morning's free practice sessions. In addition we are continuing to work at our research centres in Clermont-Ferrand and Greenville, South Carolina. As yet we have not been able to understand the reason leading to yesterday's sudden tyre-pressure drop on two Toyotas.
"Using the latest data available we continue to direct our teams in the usage of our products so that drivers could participate safely in today's free practice and qualification sessions.
"During the build-up to the United States Grand Prix, engineers at our research centres will continue to focus on the product we ran today to decide if we will be able to use this specification safely in tomorrow's race."