Toyota Rue Missed Opportunity

The Toyota team lamented not scoring any points at the Spanish Grand Prix after a promising showing in Saturday's qualifying.

Frenchman Olivier Panis started the race from seventh position, but he was first hit by a penalty for speeding in the pitlane and later went on to retire with a mechanical problem on lap 34.

Brazilian Cristiano da Matta managed to finish the race, but he was the last driver classified in 13th position.

"The encouraging qualifying on Saturday made us hopeful for the race. Unfortunately we were not able to continue in the same way," said team boss Tsutomu Tomita. "On the first set of tyres we had problems with high tyre pressures which meant that the TF104s struggled for speed.

"Olivier lost some positions because of a drive through penalty for speeding in the pit lane. He then suffered from a hydraulic pressure drop and had to retire. Cristiano did a good job; he was able to finish the race but the lack of pace ended in a disappointing result.

"We know that we have still a long way to go but we do our best to keep pushing and developing the car."