24/06/2006
NEWS STORY
Panasonic Toyota Racing is celebrating its best qualifying performance of 2006 after Jarno Trulli took 4th place on the grid for tomorrow's Canadian Grand Prix. After a week of mixed weather, the sun appeared for Saturday's hour of qualifying and it was a hot day's work at Montreal's Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Jarno enjoyed a good afternoon, making it into Session 3 before taking 4th place in the final shoot-out. Team mate Ralf Schumacher was less fortunate, struggling for balance and finishing Session 2 in 14th, less than a tenth of a second away from the top ten. Toyota will now head into tomorrow's race looking to secure the best possible finish around this circuit in the Canadian province of Quebec.
Jarno Trulli: "I'm delighted because that was an extremely strong qualifying session for both myself and the team. The car went really well and I put together a very good lap. I didn't expect to be so far up the grid but I could have gone even quicker if I hadn't been blocked by Fisichella. It's good to be fighting for the top positions and this result comes because the whole team is pushing so hard both on track and at the factory. We worked pretty well in the morning, preparing both for qualifying and the race without showing our true potential. We're in good shape for the race and I'm confident about our strategy. The start will be very difficult because the first corner is so tight. We have struggled off the line in recent races so we hope that improves tomorrow. But in the last few races we've definitely shown better potential and better speed so I will push for another good day."
Ralf Schumacher: "This has been a difficult day for me. This morning I really struggled for grip and I could not find a balance. Those problems continued into qualifying, meaning that we ended up far away from where we should have been. My team mate had a better afternoon so we will have to look at the data to try to improve for tomorrow. It will be a hard race but we have a free choice of strategy and I expect the whole package to work better in the race. This is a good track for racing and there are chances to overtake. The circuit is improving all the time and with more hot weather expected on Sunday we should be able to make progress."
Pascal Vasselon - Senior General Manager Chassis: "That was our best qualifying performance of 2006 so far and Jarno put together a very good afternoon's work. We're disappointed for Ralf because he has been close to Jarno's pace for most of the weekend and he missed out on the top ten by the narrowest of margins. But we expect both drivers to perform strongly in the race tomorrow. Again it was a tight choice over the tyres but we are pleased with the pace our car has shown. We ran on old tyres this morning as part of our preparations for the race so it was no surprise that the grip was not at its best but our Bridgestone tyres performed very well this afternoon. There is a tiny chance of rain tomorrow but we are expecting another hot day and those conditions should suit us. So we are looking forward to the race and we hope to come away with a strong result."
To check out our Canada qualifying picture gallery, click here