Text - Panasonic Toyota Racing: Hungarian Grand Prix - Second Qualifying Session

For the seventh race in succession, the Panasonic Toyota Racing team has put one of its TF103 race cars in the top half of the grid, after Frenchman Olivier Panis claimed tenth place in today's Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying session. Cristiano da Matta encountered some handling problems on his flying lap and drove a somewhat cautious lap after spinning in the pre-qualifying sessions, all of which resulted in the Brazilian's 15th place on the starting grid for tomorrow's race.

Olivier Panis - Car Number 20, Chassis TF103/08
Session Classification: 10th
Lap Time: 1m23.369s +1.681s from pole
Running Order: 14th
"I am really pleased with my lap. It was quite a strong run and I don't think we could get any more from the car. I made no mistakes and pushed to the limit, so now we have to wait and see what happens tomorrow. Top ten on the grid was the aim and we have achieved that today, so from there we are looking to score more points in the race - this is the what we need to achieve in the remaining races of the season."

Cristiano da Matta - Car Number 21, Chassis TF103/04
Session Classification: 15th
Lap Time: 1m23.982s +2.294s from pole
Running Order: 2nd
"Obviously that wasn't my best qualifying lap, but I decided to take a conservative approach after spinning a couple of times during the weekend. I have had some handling problems today with oversteer in my car and generally the grip levels have not been as good today as they were yesterday, which has affected the overall performance. From 15th on the grid, it's going to be a tough race, but nevertheless I'm going to push for points."

Keizo Takahashi - General Manager Car Design and Development "We came into this Hungarian Grand Prix expecting it to be the hardest of the four remaining races of the year, so I think that to get a seventh consecutive top ten qualifying result today was a good result. Going out second in the running order, Cristiano suffered a bit with dustier track conditions, but also had some oversteer, which affected his overall lap time. Olivier had a trouble-free lap to take tenth, achieving our top ten target for qualifying. I am hopeful that we can also achieve our race target, namely more points."

Weather: Hot and sunny
T-Car: TF103/07 set up for Olivier Panis Spare Chassis: TF103/02

Weekend at a Glance

Friday practice (dry track)
Panis P1, 1m21.770s, 25 laps
Da Matta P5, 1m22.700s, 24 laps

Friday Qualifying (dry track)
Panis P7, 1m22.986s (+0.628s)
Da Matta P20, 1m55.138s (+32.780s)

Saturday practice 1 (dry track)
Panis P7, 1m24.251s, 14 laps
Da Matta P15, 1m25.545s, 16 laps

Saturday practice 2 (dry track)
Panis P10, 1m23.789s, 17 laps
Da Matta P17, 1m24.401s, 13 laps

Warm-Up (dry track)
Panis P8, 1m23.582s, 6 laps
Da Matta P13, 1m24.789s, 5 laps

Please note that chassis numbers in Friday's press release were incorrect. Correct chassis numbers for this weekend's Hungarian GP are above.