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France: Points aren't making Prizes
By Nick Sparkes
July 4 2005
After the Imperial Death March, which was the American Grand Prix, Formula One needed to put on a show at the next venue Magny-Cours for the French Grand Prix. Panasonic Toyota Racing fielded a front row slot for Jarno Trulli, but come the end a handful of points would be there only reward.

Magny-Cours – Points aren’t making Prizes

 

Strongest practice to date

During Friday and Saturday’s free practice sessions there was a recurring pattern emerging, in each session that our cars competed in we would end up within the top ten on each ovation. This was a really strong start to the weekend and such a turn around from the tyre failures of two weeks back. It was also a time for welcoming F1 veteran Olivier Panis back to the steering wheel, as he replaced Ricardo Zonta for a one off outing in front of his home crowd. The first day saw each of the three Toyota’s lap happily within the top ten with no dramas of any sort. Saturday was awoken with a wet track which quickly dried out allowing Ralf Schumacher to set the second fastest before the start of qualifying. Toyota were looking strong.  

 

Front row again!

Qualifying is always difficult if you’re the first man out, sadly for Ralf Schumacher this was the case as on a dusty, dirty track the odd mistake here and there didn’t allow him to break into the top ten, the lowest any Toyota had been that weekend. Whereas for Jarno Trulli another stellar lap from the Italian gave Toyota their fourth front row starting slot this season. At this stage I was guessing on the stratergy and was expecting a mixture of 2 to 3 stops between the two Toyota drivers.

 

Elsewhere on home soil Renault took another pole position at the hands of championship leader Fernando Alonso, but it was only a tenth of a second faster than Jarno’s. Behind McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen had to take on an engine change after free practice which mean’t he had top drop 10 places back which left him down thirteenth. I speculated that the team had sent the McLaren driver out on a four-stop stratergy to enable him to move up the field in what was a lightning quick car.

 

Irritating result

From the early stages till the end of the race Jarno Trulli would only be fighting a rearward battle as his Toyota dropped behind race leader Fernando Alonso during the early stages of the race. To be honest, Toyota haven’t had the pace so far this season where they could run closely with the leader, thus fighting a rearward battle with a train of faster cars behind them. I knew it would only be a matter of time before they got past, and apart from Takuma Sato’s dramatic attempt at the hairpin, which ruined his race, everyone pretty much found away though. I wasn’t surprised to hear that both Jarno and Ralf struggled with rear end grid, which could have a lot to do with tyres, set-up as well as the drivers overall driving style.

 

I was impressed though with Ralf’s drive up through the field, you have to wonder if he had started on the front row if he could had finished higher than his more successful team-mate Jarno Trulli. Ralf hasn’t had the best of seasons so far, and he has taken a lot of stick from the media as well as the fans, and gets little publicity when he makes progress because his teammate has finished three places in front of him. I have faith in Ralf, when the car is there and he is having no problems of his own he can be quick, but once on his back foot mistakes creep in and it snow boards itself to the next race. Hopefully now in a better qualifying slot, I expect to see the Ralf Schumacher we saw in his early days at Williams; up near the front and challenging his team mate.

 

It’s the stuff you’re used to seeing by Michael Schumacher…

Many drivers stood out throughout the weekend. First off both Toyota drivers, as we know Jarno put in an excellent qualifying lap and out drove the car, which could hardly repeat itself during the race. Then you have Ralf who was the opposite, a troubled qualifying lap yet an impressive pace during the race which saw him finish under 20 seconds behind his team mate Jarno Trulli. Also Fernando Alonso drove a strummer of the weekend, taking pole and the victory with hardly any challengers, a repeat performance of his victories in Malaysia and Bahrain. Yet for me, Kimi Raikkonen and the McLaren team are my driver/team of the day. Kimi was disadvantaged during qualifying with his engine penalty, yet still set the third fastest time. During the race he ran longer than any of the leaders and finished a creditable second in a car, which really could have challenged Alonso for the lead. This is positive stuff heading into their home Grand Prix in England, where McLaren turned around their season just 12 months ago at the legendry Silverstone circuit.

 

British Grand Prix time for Toyota

The main positive to take away from the weekend is Toyota are slowly moving forward again, maybe not at the pace as everyone else, but a double points finish was only matched by Renault and we are still one of the most reliable teams in the field. Our next stop is just a trip across the water to England for the British Grand Prix. Personally I will be making my first Formula One appearance and will be bringing Totally Toyota F1 a very special review of my Silverstone weekend. Hopefully the weekend will see that long awaited return to the podium, but with Jenson Button finally making his point on the scoreboard after his fourth place in France, I’m sure the crowd will be rooting for a British winner. 

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