By Huw Alban (20/04/03)
April 20 2003

Starting from 10th and 13th on a track that is notoriously difficult to overtake at, the best Toyota can hope for is a two car finish. The team got just that, and even a sniff at their first World Championship point. Both Toyota's got away cleanly at the start, with Olivier Panis making places to 7th at first corner. His position doesn't look all thatsafe however, with the frenchman having to defend from David Coulthard throughout the first lap. Cristiano da Matta had also made a place to 12th by the end of lap 1. A replay of the start shows Panis taking a run against the pit wall and beating all his nearest competitors into the first corner.

By lap 3 Panis begins to pull away from the McLaren, but da Matta is coming under pressure from the BAR of Jacques Villeneuve. Panis's 1st stop came at the end of lap 11, with da Matta in on the very next lap, showing that Toyota are probably on a three stop strategy. Toyota lost a lot of places this early in the race with Panis rejoining 14th and da Matta 16th.

Panis clawed his way back up to 8th by the end of lap 16 and da Matta had improved to 12th - other competitors making pit stops being the major contributing factor. End of lap 21 sees da Matta making 1 place to 11th, with Panis still 8th.

Panis pits again a the end of lap 27, with da Matta straight after again. Panis rejoins the track in 12th and da Matta 14th. UK TV commentary speculated that Toyota were on a three stop strategy for this race, and if so then both drivers are working to the same plan. Interestingly both the second Toyota stops were around the 7 second mark, the same as the Williams cars with the TV commentators reckoning that Williams had fueled to the finish - have Toyota done the same so that both their cars make places due to other team's stops ?

At the end of lap 31 Panis has made a place to 11th, with da Matta static in 14th. 2 laps later da Matta loses a place to a hard charging Giancarlo Fisichella. The TV coverage showed da Matta trying hard to regain the place on the start/finish straight, but he was unable to make the move stick. Panis, meanwhile, has made another place to 10th.

At the end of lap 38, Giancarlo makes a pit stop allowing da Matta to regain 14th. Olivier is still running a strong 10th just behind the BAR of Jenson Button. 4 laps later the Frenchman has been elevated to 9th, now just 1 place away from a points scoring position, and da Matta is 12th.

Panis pits again with 18 laps to go (that blows the fill to the finish theory), feeding him back into the race in 11th just ahead of his team mate. The Toyota team are immediately ready for Cristiano to make his third and final stop of the day.

At the end of lap 53, Panis has improved to 10th and da Matta has regained his favourite 14th position. Mark Webber's Jaguar gives up at the end of lap 55, giving 9th back to Panis and 13th to da Matta.

With 2 laps to, Giancarlo Fisichella sufferes an engine failure giving 12th to da Matta. This proved to be the last position gain by the team with Panis finishing in a frustrating 9th and da Matta 12th.