Panasonic Toyota Racing suffered a desperately disappointing qualifying session for the Monaco Grand Prix today. After a tough opening day of practice on Thursday, the team used the traditional ‘day off’ on Friday to study data and improve the set-up of the TF109s for Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock. However, the twisty Monaco streets proved to be not suited to the TF109 and, with traffic a factor, the qualifying result fell hugely short of expectations. Both drivers completed three runs during Q1, setting their fastest times on the super soft Bridgestone tyres.
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Jarno Trulli
“It is extremely disappointing but especially because I was on a pretty good lap at the end of Q1 when I was blocked by another car in the final two corners. That would have been my quickest lap and I would have been easily in Q2. So I am angry about that but ultimately we haven’t shown good enough performance this weekend.”
Timo Glock
“We have to analyse and see where the problems are. We struggled from the first lap this weekend. The car didn’t feel great but it didn’t feel terrible, it was just that the pace clearly wasn’t there. I pushed as hard as possible but it wasn’t enough. Obviously I will do my best in the race tomorrow but from this position on the grid we don’t have much hope.”
Pascal Vasselon - Senior General Manager Chassis
“It has been a very difficult weekend, obviously. There is clearly something wrong on the car which we are looking at; we have to fix this. The race will be difficult from where we start but still we will keep on fighting.”
Jarno Trulli (Car 9, Chassis TF109-06)
3rd Practice: 19th, 1m 16.810s (+1.646s), 26 laps
1st Qualifying: 19th, 1m 16.548s (+1.338s), 11 laps
Timo Glock (Car 10, Chassis TF109-05)
3rd Practice: 17th, 1m 16.527s (+1.363s), 29 laps
1st Qualifying: 20th, 1m 16.788s (+1.578s), 12 laps
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