12/09/2009
NEWS STORY
Panasonic Toyota Racing suffered last-minute disappointment at Monza today during qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix. Timo Glock and Jarno Trulli came within a whisker of progressing to second and third qualifying respectively, only to be denied at the very last moment. Both drivers started first qualifying on the medium compound Bridgestone Potenza tyres and steadily improved their lap times before switching to the soft options. Jarno delivered his best time on his final lap to progress but Timo missed out by just 0.022s after encountering traffic in a session where the top 19 were covered by less than a second. Jarno was therefore the only Toyota in second qualifying and he pulled out all the stops on the medium tyres to give himself a great chance of reaching the top 10. He did not improve during a last stint on soft tyres but still looked likely to reach third qualifying until the very last act of the session when he dropped down to 11th.
Jarno Trulli: "I am happy with my lap in second qualifying because that was the maximum we could get out of the car. Of course it is not satisfying to be 11th and it's extremely disappointing to miss out on the top 10 right at the end of the session like that. I would have been really happy to be in the top 10 considering the performance in practice, which suggested it would be a tough qualifying for us. It is going to be hard tomorrow but 11th is not far away from the top eight so we need to fight and try to bring home some points."
Timo Glock: "It's frustrating to miss out on second qualifying when I was only sixth tenths away from the fastest lap of the session. We looked quite promising this morning but we didn't transfer all of that speed to qualifying, and I wasn't helped by traffic. On my last lap on the soft tyres another car went straight on at the chicane and I had to follow him, which destroyed my lap. I had the potential to qualify higher but if you lose a little bit of time like that it is very costly. It will be tough in the race tomorrow but we will work on a strategy to make up some places and do our best as always."
Pascal Vasselon - Senior General Manager Chassis: "It was the kind of result we were expecting but not the result we wanted. Again the field has been extremely tight and in each session we have seen that several cars are covered by just one or two tenths. Nevertheless, our level of competitiveness was nowhere near the level we had in Spa when we qualified on the front row and we are not happy about that. For the race we will choose a strategy to give us the best chance of moving up the field. We have more freedom with our fuel load compared to the top 10 and we will make the most of the opportunities available; there are still good chances to finish in the points."
Jarno Trulli will join around 100 VIPs at an exclusive charity auction tonight to raise money for the victims of the Abruzzo earthquake. Helmets and overalls from Formula 1 drivers will be auctioned to raise funds for his Abruzzo nel Cuore appeal, along with watches from Audemars Piguet, which has organised the event.