Toyota: We Got our Strategy Wrong

The Toyota team were disappointed after failing to finish in the points at today's United States Grand Prix.

The Japanese squad were in a strong position to score points, with Frenchman Olivier Panis starting from third position while Brazilian Cristiano da Matta was ninth. But Panis, who eventually retired from the race, said the team got their strategy wrong when it began to rain at Indianapolis.

"I think our original strategy would have put us in a strong position to get a good result today," said Panis. "We planned to stop on lap 19 for the first of our two scheduled stops, but it began to rain and we decided to change our approach.

"We risked running wet tyres, but unfortunately this turned out to be the wrong way to go. I was forced to pit for a nosecone change after another car hit me, but we were already way back. I stopped shortly afterwards when the car spun in the slippery conditions.

"Despite the race result, we can draw some positive aspects from this weekend and we will certainly learn from today's experience."

Da Matta finished just outside the points in ninth place.