Formula One news

Trulli surprises for Toyota

Jarno Trulli held true to his predictions that Toyota would surprise a few people at Albert Park by qualifying sixth for tomorrow's Grand Prix.

"Sixth place is a good start to the season so the result is satisfying," Trulli said. "But it was quite a difficult qualifying session and I'm still not completely happy with the set-up because I wasn't able to get the most out of my lap. We've also been struggling more than we expected with the tyres here. So I feel there is more potential to come. Our race package is good so I am positive and optimistic for tomorrow. I just hope we can do a good race. Our long runs have been strong with this car during testing so I'll cross my fingers. I'm really fired up for the season and confident that we can get some strong results."

Team mate Timo Glock ended up ninth on his Toyota debut. "That went well for my first qualifying session back in F1, and I'm happy to have made it into Q3. Unfortunately we had to change the gearbox after morning practice so that will cost me five places, but the afternoon went better. Q1 was tight, then the red flag in Q2 disrupted the session but my last lap in Q2 was a good one. I lost a couple of tenths in turn 9 but I made it into Q3 with a really good last sector. Overall the car was good and I am quite happy with it, so it was a good job by the team."

Toyota chassis chief Pascal Vasselon added, "The first qualifying delivered what was expected - a lot of surprises, both bad and good. It was very exciting because at certain points it was very tight between several teams and drivers. We are quite happy with what we have achieved today. This shows we have maintained the good form from the last test session when we introduced our final race package. But we can't be fully satisfied because the gap to the top is quite big. We also had a problem with Timo's car during this morning's practice and we had to change his gearbox. That means that despite his good performance in qualifying he will have to drop back five places. So there are still mixed feelings but thanks to both drivers who did a very good job today."

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