Two weeks on from his nasty impact with the Hockenheim pit-wall and a rejuvenated Timo Glock was looking every bit a star of the future in Hungary as he traded lap-times with Formula One’s powerhouses en-route to a sensational second place.
Luck played its part with Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa both falling victim to the cruelty of technical misfortune, but Timo Glock climbed up onto the second step of the podium entirely on merit after a dazzling assault on the Budapest circuit.
The German, who has been on the pace in his Toyota in Hungary all weekend – he started the race an impressive fifth place – got the jump on Robert Kubica at the start to take fourth and never looked back.
“What an incredible feeling,” revelled the Toyota driver after fending off a charging Kimi Raikkonen in the dying laps to take his maiden podium. “I couldn’t believe it when I saw Felipe’s engine go and I was P2. To get such a good result in my first year is fantastic so a huge thank you to all the team, including the engineers, mechanics and everyone at the factory.”
“I knew from qualifying that we had good speed and we’ve looked strong all weekend. Today I made a good start and gained a place into the first corner.”
The only threat to his second place position came in the form of Kimi Raikkonen in the last few laps, as Glock struggled with the handling of his Toyota on the soft tyres. But the 2007 GP2 champion used all of his knowledge of the track from his GP2 days to keep the Finn at bay.
“I had a really good car and everything went perfectly until the last stint on the soft tyres,” explained the 26-year-old. “I was struggling a lot and soon I had Kimi behind me.”
“But I knew from last year here in GP2, when I was stuck in the midfield in a really good car, how hard it is to pass here. So when I saw him in the mirrors I knew I couldn’t afford any mistakes.”
“This result more than makes up for Hockenheim and now we must keep picking up regular points until the end of the season.”
Toyota’s Team Principal Tadashi Yamashina was lost for words: “I really can’t find the words to celebrate this result, the best of our season. We had a few difficulties in practice but during qualifying the drivers pushed themselves to the limit and things got better and better.”
“Today Timo did a fantastic race. We saw immediately that his car was quick and his third stint was almost perfect. He was under threat from Kimi but he was quick in the third sector and he was able to fend him off.
“So this is a stunning performance and my thanks go out to the whole team and everyone working in the factory. I’m very appreciative of all their hard work and next we will aim for the centre of the podium.”
