By Luke Marc Carlile-Stanton
March 18 2006

Things are looking up for the Panasonic Toyota Racing team after qualifying, despite the fact that Ralf Schumacher suffered a engine blow up and Jarno Trulli was knocked out in the second phase, the team in general are looking quicker than they were in Bahrain one week a go. Phase One:

The second outing of knockout qualifying started with a lot of the front runners going out early to put in ‘Banker Laps’ to avoid being on their back foot in case of any incidents like there was in Bahrain last weekend. The two Toyota drivers were amongst this ‘rabble’ and immediately went into the top ten underlining that Toyota are generally looking slightly stronger than they were in Bahrain. With a few minutes to go in the first part of the session Ralf was safe and easily going through to the second session but Jarno was in 17th place and in danger of suffering the fate that Ralf had in Bahrain of going out in the first session. Jarno put in a lap to go into 8th but at the end of the session this would become 13th, however that was irrelevant, both Toyota’s were going through to the second session. The three back-marker teams of Scuderia Toro Rosso, Midland F1 and Super Aguri had their drivers knocked out in the first session.

Top 6: Montoya, Raikkonen, Coulthard, Button, Massa, Rosberg

Bottom 6 and knocked out: Speed, Liuzzi, Albers, Monteiro, Sato, Ide

Phase Two:

The second session posed a slight danger to the midfield teams of their drivers getting knocked out and in this band of cars were Toyota. In the early part of the second session both Ralf and Jarno looked quick with both drivers in the top 6, however with a few minutes to go Ralf’s engine blew up on the main straight, but Ralf had already set a lap time quick enough for him to go through to the final session! However with his engine blow up Ralf could take no further part in qualifying, and to add to the disappointment of not being able to go through to the final shoot-out, Ralf will have to take an engine change which drops him down to the back of the grid.

With four minutes to go Toyota’s agony was stretched even further as runners such as Alonso, Fisichella, Button, Klien and Mark Webber left all their best laps very late and knocked Jarno to 13th position and into the drop zone. For the second time with this new system Jarno is knocked out after the second session.

Top 6: Button, Fisichella, Alonso, Webber, Raikkonen, Klien.

Bottom 6 and knocked out: Coulthard, Barrichello, Trulli, Villeneuve, Heidfeld, Massa.

Phase Three:

Ralf had set a lap fast enough to compete in the final ‘pole shoot out’ session but with his engine up in smoke he could take no further part under the new rules. That left Alonso, Fisichella, Rosberg, Webber, Montoya, Raikkonen, Klien, Button and Michael Schumacher to battle it out for pole position, with Williams looking very quick with Nico Rosberg and Mark Webber getting amongst the Renault, McLaren, Ferrari and Honda, the scene was set for another exciting final session. Rosberg had been praised after the Bahrain Grand Prix for his excellent job in the race and his ability to learn circuits quickly. Williams can only praise the 2005 GP2 champion further as he was the definite surprise of the session, finishing in third place, after lying second for most of the session. But it was Renault’s Giancarlo Fisichella who took pole position at the very end of the session, denying Jenson Button by a tenth who himself had been on the pole position slot for most of the remaining minutes, leaving the most unluckiest man in Formula One (so its claimed) heading the start for tomorrows race.

Top 10: Fisichella, Button, Rosberg, M.Schumacher, Webber, Montoya, Raikkonen, Alonso, Klien, R. Schumacher.

Notes

Ralf Schumacher, David Coulthard, Rubens Barrichello, Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa have all taken engine changes and therefore drop 10 places on the grid.