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Panasonic Toyota Racing: GP of Canada - Free Practice Round-Up
Grand Prix of Canada - Free Practice Round-Up
First Session Classification: 12th, 13 laps completed
Lap Time: 1m16.475s (+2.462s)
Second Session Classification: 7th, 30 laps completed
Lap Time: 1m15.146s (+1.060s)
"I was very disappointed with the car in the first practice session this morning, but we modified a few things on the set-up during the break. The second session ran very smoothly and looking at the final results, it was probably our most successful practice of the season so far, especially with the fuel load we were carrying today. Tomorrow will be the key indicator though, because it seems to be a bit of a strange classification with a mix-up all the way through the field. It was a good start for us, but let's not get too excited right now. We just have to keep working and see what happens."
Olivier Panis (Car 17, Chassis TF104/03)
First Session Classification: 10th, 14 laps completed
Lap Time: 1m15.997s (+1.984s)
Second Session Classification: 13th, 28 laps completed
Lap Time: 1m15.538s (+1.452s)
"Unfortunately the Grand Prix weekend did not start in such a positive way for me and I am not so happy with the two practice sessions. All day I was not really confident with my car. Additionally I was held up by traffic. I think that there are some drivers on the grid who should use their mirrors more often in order to avoid traffic problems. Tonight we have still some work ahead of us. We need to check the data carefully to find a good set-up compromise for tomorrow."
Ricardo Zonta (Car 38, Chassis TF104/07)
First Session Classification: 4th, 23 laps completed
Lap Time: 1m14.952s (+0.939s)
Second Session Classification: 6th, 33 laps completed
Lap Time: 1m14.871s (+0.785s)
"We made good progress between the first and second sessions. We found a tyre that performs quite well over one lap and also consistently for the race. The lap time that I achieved over the long run was encouraging. I have been suffering from flu this week and I occasionally felt a bit bad in the car during the session today, so to see the positive end result of our efforts is very rewarding. We improved the braking a lot from one session to the next, and also how the car handles the kerbs, which is important at Montreal. Overall, it has been a strong first day."
Mike Gascoyne - Technical Director Chassis
"A useful first day of running without any major problems. We carried out our normal programme including tyre evaluations. In general the balance of the car is reasonably good although Olivier is a little less happy than the other two drivers. Overall the TF104 looks quite competitive, perhaps the most competitive that it has looked so far this year. We now have to analyse the data to see which of the two types of tyre we will choose for the rest of the weekend."
Full results on Friday's free practice sessions can be found on Panasonic Toyota Racing's media website www.toyota-f1-media.com