Da Matta Baffled by Qualifying Spin

Toyota driver Cristiano da Matta admitted he did not know what caused him to spin during his flying lap in today's first qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Da Matta lost control of his car as he was about to complete his lap, and although he could cross the finish line the Brazilian driver will be the first man to go out in tomorrow's session after finishing more then 30 seconds off the pace.

The current CART champion said he did not think he had made a driving mistake.

"I don't really know exactly what happened to cause me to spin towards the end of my lap," said da Matta. "It could have been a failure of the traction control. It didn't feel like I made a mistake, but it happened so quickly we'll have to look into it.

"I had already gone through the difficult part at the entry of the corner, where the car can be a bit oversteery, so it was quite a strange spin. It is only the first day of this race weekend and we did some good work this morning, so I hope we can turn this result around tomorrow."

French teammate Olivier Panis wound up seventh fastest with the second Toyota. The veteran driver, however, was not happy with the result after posting the fastest time in the practice session.

"Seventh place is a respectable result, however I am not really satisfied," admitted Panis. "I was really impressed by the competitiveness of the car this morning and the grip that we had, but for whatever reason the grip levels were not as good this afternoon.

"The Hungaroring is very dusty of the first day of the weekend, so it is not unusual for the track to change so much between sessions. Although I expected to do a bit better, we should still be encouraged by the start to this weekend."