Monte Carlo Report – A crash and a thump

Panasonic Toyota Racing headed to the place of millionaires with high hopes of a strong result, I recall myself stating that this could be the race where we finally jump onto the top step of the podium. But now with egg on my face the weekend was nothing more than a crash and a thump.

For starters the three Toyota TF105’s were nowhere during Thursday’s practice, the drivers struggling for grid on the dusty street circuit. Things improved into Saturday with the team rounding out the final practice session within the top six, things were looking up.

But during qualifying one the first accident of the season for Toyota made an unwelcome appearance. Ralf Schumacher already handed a 0.5 second penalty for using an illegal tyre during practice clipped the barrier around Tabac corner sending him straight into the one opposite, his car grounding to a halt with one side of his TF105 missing. Now, at that stage I would had placed the blame upon Ralf himself, to tell you the truth I still do, but after watching replays of the accident I’m going to give Ralf the benefit of the doubt. Why? Well, Ralf was already handicapped before his lap, he knew he had to push to make up for lost time, and with Monaco being Monaco, one small mistake and you’ve had it as Ralf has demonstration. To make matters worse his team-mate Jarno Trulli was next out, and after taking to the lap far to cautiously in my view, ended up in a lonely seventh. Not the worlds best start to the glamour’s weekend, but by far not the worst.

Thankfully Jarno Trulli was able to jump his Panasonic Toyota up into fifth position during Sunday’s final qualifying two, which allowed the team to have some hope of some points going into the race. Elsewhere Kimi Raikkonen’s McLaren took another pole, ahead of championship leader Fernando Alonso whose Renault team were confident of their rear tyres during the second half of the Grand Prix...ha...how wrong they were!

As the race unfolded with Raikkonen up front, a lead he would never lose, Jarno Trulli lead a train of cars over the battle for fourth, with Ralf Schumacher fighting his way up though the field back in fourteenth. But behind the drama unfolded, as on lap 24 Alber’s spun his Minardi into Miarbeau forcing a car park to form behind, with Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari hitting the back of David Coulthard’s Red Bull racing who was first onto the scene. This deployed the safety car, allowing some teams to pit their drivers, but the McLaren of Raikkonen and the two Panasonic Toyota drivers remained on track moving up the field.

But the most interesting stage of the race, the remaining 30 laps or so, saw an amazing turn of events with tyre wear a key issue to the handling of some of the cars. Whilst Kimi Raikkonen’s McLaren enjoyed a half a minute lead, behind some were having a far less comfortable time. The battle for fifth lead by Renault’s Giancarlo Fisichella held up a string of up to seven cars, with Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher in the thick of the action. Plunging down into Lowes hairpin Jarno made a move bumping up the kerbs forcing the Renault driver wide. This lead to the train of cars muscling past Fisichella with Jarno limping back to the pits with suspension damage after his outrageous move. To be fair Jarno has either going to make the move or be passed himself, and in my mind did the right thing but forcing himself up along the kerb, almost hitting Giancarlo’s Renault could had started a similar incident to the one caused by Alber’s earlier in the race, luckily the move was semi-successful.

At the line the two Panasonic Toyota Racing cars made it home, maybe not in the positions the team were after but a sixth and a tenth continues the team’s 100% finishing record during the 2005 Formula One World Championship. Possibly not the weekend the team was after, and in my view a disaster from the word go, but at lest we took something away, even if it were just three points – something that we used to just score in a year!

Looking ahead to the European Grand Prix, the Nurburgring circuit, the Panasonic Toyota Racing team is again confident of another strong result. But with everyone from the factory attending this sort of “home Grand Prix” the pressure will be on to deliver something better then the embarrassing parade along the streets of Monaco.

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