Panasonic Toyota Racing salvaged a points finish from a difficult weekend at today's Brazilian Grand Prix at an overcast Interlagos where the rain held off. Ralf Schumacher took his TF105 to 8th place after a solid afternoon's work in trying circumstances after suffering understeer in qualifying yesterday caused by a tyre issue. Jarno Trulli faced a hard task from 18th on the grid after suffering a ten place penalty for an engine change yesterday. He lost places avoiding an incident at the first corner and found himself in traffic for most of the race before retiring with a pneumatic problem on the last lap. The result means that Toyota still holds 4th place in the constructors' championship with 81 points.
Ralf Schumacher faced a tough afternoon's work because of an issue with his tyres during qualifying yesterday, but he drove well to take a point for 8th place, his 12th points finish of the season.
Ralf Schumacher: "That was a pretty tough race for us today. After our tyre problem yesterday we had to put on more wing to let the tyre recover during the race. But the car was very difficult to drive all race, especially early on. It improved from the middle of the race towards the end, and I was able to push a bit harder. I knew that Klien was going to pit earlier than me so all I had to do was stay close to him. Then I was lucky because I had to let Raikkonen past during my crucial extra laps but I didn't lose too much time. After all that, one point is better than nothing."
Jarno Trulli had a frustrating afternoon, starting down in 18th place. He lost ground avoiding the incident at the start and he endured a difficult afternoon's work in traffic before he retired late on with a pneumatic problem.
Jarno Trulli: "It has been a weekend where everything went wrong for me. First we had the engine change yesterday which lost me ten places on the grid. Then I had to avoid the incident at the start of the race where I almost got hit by a spinning car. My race really lasted only a few laps when I was out of traffic and I was able to do some good lap times. The rest of the time we were quick but not quick enough to overtake cars at the only place you can here, on the straight. So that was a weekend to forget, but we'll hope to do better at Suzuka in a fortnight."
A difficult Brazilian Grand Prix weekend for Panasonic Toyota Racing ended with the consolation of a single point after a solid afternoon's work around Interlagos.
Tsutomu Tomita – Team Principal: "It was good that Ralf made the points but he could have had so much more. During qualifying he had some severe understeer on his car because he was not satisfied with his particular set of tyres. We are very disappointed that this happened, but because of the strong racing and commercial relationship between Michelin and Toyota over many years we are confident that this situation will not arise again. Ralf should have started further up the grid and it certainly didn't help his race balance so in the circumstances he did very well. It was a frustrating race for Jarno. He did well to avoid Pizzonia in the first corner but then spent much of the race in traffic without a real chance to attack because it's so hard to overtake here. It all means it is now very difficult to chase third position in the constructors' championship, but we will keep pushing. We are especially keen to show our best performance at home in Japan in two weeks' time."
