The Toyota team left the British Grand Prix with a 13th place finish for Cristiano da Matta and a DNF for Olivier Panis. It was something of a race to forget for the team as da Matta showed little pace and Olivier Panis starting from 17th pace had his fire extinguisher go off in his car, forcing him to retire.
The team look forward to the German Grand Prix in two weeks time where they will run the much awaited TF104B chassis for the first time.
Cristiano da Matta "In the circumstances, I think I drove a good race, but obviously I am not pleased with my eventual 13th place. I got held up a lot just before the safety car period, which cost me around ten seconds and we then lost ground because the three-stopping cars were able to use the safety car to their advantage. These things conspired against me and I subsequently dropped one lap from Gene and Sato with whom I was fighting. With our revised car, I hope we will not have to endure a race affected by blue flags, as has been the case far too often this season."
Olivier Panis"Starting from 17th on the grid, it was never going to be easy today, but the race finished far too early for me when my fire extinguisher exploded in the car just after my first scheduled pit stop. The spray went everywhere, on the steering wheel and on my visor, which meant I couldn't see anything and I ended up in the gravel. A bad end to a difficult weekend, but I am looking forward to trying the TF104B, the car with which we will race in Hockenheim in two weeks' time."
Tsutomu Tomita, Team Principal"A difficult race for Olivier. He was the only Michelin runner to run with the softer of the two compounds, something we decided as a team after the inconclusive results from Friday practice. However, they simply didn't perform in his first stint, which prevented him from making up the positions he had to. After his second stop, the fire extinguisher went off and he had to retire."
"Cristiano had a much more positive race and could have fought with some of the cars running a three-stop strategy. He lost time stuck behind some backmarkers, which under the safety car resulted in him losing one lap against those cars with whom he should have been racing. We now look ahead to Hockenheim where we have our revised TF104B car for the first time. The German Grand Prix will be a bit of a test session for us, as we are not running most parts prior to the race, but we are confident that we can overcome our recent troubles and make steady progress up the grid."
