Monaco, Monaco!

 Panasonic Toyota Racing knew this wasn’t going to be the easiest Grand Prix of the calendar, but with many testing they had the confidence to finish in the top eight.

Especially for Ricardo (Zonta) it wasn’t a very good day. He started the day with a completely wrong set-up. Which let him lose lots of data in the 1^st free practice, he eventually got the 17^th(1m 20.979s (+3.827s)) time of the day. The 2^nd one wasn’t much better; he kept driving in the traffic and he just couldn’t find the right balance. While completing 35 laps he drove his personal fastest lap of 1m 17.046s (+1.211s), which was enough for the 10^th place.

At the end of the day he commented: ‘Everything went wrong for me today.’ And well… you can tell me anything, but..eh…that can never be good.

Jarno Trulli also wasn’t very glad with this day; he was struggling all day to get some good grip. And he couldn’t find a good set-up. He started the day in the 1^st free practice and classified himself as 13^th, such as the 2^nd free practice with 28 laps completed.

Ralf Schumacher had a better day; he fortunately didn’t have such as problems as Ricardo and Jarno. He drove quite many laps and in the end of the day he got the 8^th (1m 18.482s) time in 1^st free practice and the 9^th time, but he was faster than earlier; 1m 16.917s (+1.082s). the only thing Ralf and his team had to do was aiming for a good tire choice.

This all didn’t look so promising for the weekend….but, as always, everybody in the team kept optimistic for good qualifying- and race results.

With a practice-free Friday we’re going to Saturday.

In both practices Ralf and Jarno improved their times well enough to come in the top ten. This was a good sign for the qualification and the race. First of the two Toyota drivers to go in qualifying is Ralf. He is about to set a good time but that was all over when he made a mistake at Tabac, which is crucial in Monaco, and by that ended into the barriers. He wasn’t injured at that time but a few hours later he complained about a headache. Fortunately it didn’t take too long and he was fit enough to race 78 laps in the streets of Monaco. This crash meant he had to start at the end of the grid. That why he only drove an installation lap on Sunday’s qualifying. About a quarter after Ralf’s crash Jarno had to go qualify. He drove a decent qualification and by that got the 6^th time with 1m 15.189s. In the 2^nd qualification he gained two places, which put him 5^th on the grid.

A few minutes and the race was about to begin…but first everybody in Monaco has one minute silence for the past away Prince Rainier.III.

De race started without any incidents, both Ralf and Jarno made a very good start. Fortunately there were no problems through the first corner. Jarno jumped to the 4^th place behind the two Renaults and Raikkonen. Ralf overtook a couple of slower cars in the first few laps, then he came stuck in traffic. But he still was doing fine.

About 24 laps further the yellow flags are being waved out. Albers spun at Mirabeau. David Coulthard, who suddenly had to brake hard for Albers, got hit in the back by Michael Schumacher. Michael lost his hereby his front wing and as soon as he could he went to see the pits.

Jarno and Ralf were happily in front of the accident when it happened.

When the safety car was forced to go outside, many drivers entered the pits, and unfortunate for Coulthard he had to give up his race because of that incident with Michael. Something better for Jarno was that he got into the 2^nd place because of the safety car situation.

Patrick Friesacher crashed by braking for the Nouvelle Chicane, the safety car hadn’t to come out; only a yellow flag was needed. As the race continued Raikkonen kept the leader of the race with about 20 seconds onto the 2^nd place. In the mid-race there weren’t any incidents or problems for most of the drivers…at least not for Ralf and Jarno. It were quite easy couple of laps, which brings us to the end phase of the Grand Prix of Monaco.

I said it were some easy laps…. until Vitantonio Liuzzi got chased by Michael and afterwards got a puncture, not only he got a puncture but also some problems with the suspension. He unfortunately had to stop and drove into the Red Bull Racing pit box.

Further behind Jarno got stuck behind the slower then him Gian-Carlo Fisichella. In Loews hairpin he took a chance to overtake Fisichella… it worked!! Montoya just tried to overtake Jarno but he happily closed the door. After the tunnel at the chicane Jarno made a mistake and lost several places, he said over the board radio that there was something wrong with his car and went in for a pitstop to check if everything is okay. By this stop everybody knew that getting the second Toyota in the points became impossible.

In the last few laps Heidfeld is chasing for Fernando Alonso who slowed down drastically by extreme tire drop-off. He tried to overtake Alonso in the chicane and accomplished in that. Mark Webber also had some chances to overtake Alonso and grabbed them; the first time Mark tried failed but a lap later he did it. Alonso fell back to the 4^th place.

After five rounds Montoya ran into Alonso, the Mclaren was followed by Ralf Schumacher, Rubens Barichello and Michael Schumacher. In the last lap Michael did a quite dangerous maneuver to overtake Barichello, and it worked. Just in front of the finish line Michael again tries to repeat that maneuver he did with Barichello, but this time….its with Ralf! He didn’t succeed!!! But straight after the finish line he hit Ralf with his tire and it was very close.

The winner of the Spanish Grand Prix wins the Grand prix of Monaco with a relative big gap onto 2^nd place Nick Heidfeld and 3^rd place Mark Webber.

Even that Jarno fell out of the points this Grand Prix, Toyota is not leaving Monaco empty-handed; With a great drive of Ralf Schumacher from the 18^th place on the grid he managed to capture the 6^th place! Three points for Toyota this time.

Unfortunately Toyota lost his second place in the constructors’ championship and Jarno in the drivers’ championship but Ralf so as Toyota has gained three points.

There are 13 Grand Prix to go with the next one on 28 May the qualification and 29 May the official Grand Prix of Europe on the Nürburgring!

So watch out because….The Panasonic Toyota Racing team will be back hunting for a podium finish!!!

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