The Chinese Grand Prix proved to be rather eventful for the Toyota team, for a number of reasons.
Jarno Trulli’s run of bad luck around the Shanghai Circuit continued when he fell victim to Robert Kubica, with the Polish driver hitting him from behind on Lap 17.
On the other hand, Timo Glock continued his strong start to the season with 7th position having come through the pack after starting from the Pitlane.
Jarno Trulli – DNF: “That was not a good day for me. The conditions were very difficult, there was a lot of standing water and lots of aquaplaning. When the safety car came in I made a solid start and my pace was okay in the early laps. But then I started struggling for grip, the pace just wasn’t there and the longer it went on the more ground I lost. On lap 17 I just felt a big hit from behind and I lost my rear wing. I made it back to the pits but we couldn’t continue. Still, my pace yesterday shows we’re close the front so now we must hope for better fortunes in Bahrain next weekend.”
Timo Glock – 7th: “In the end we picked up more points from the pitlane so we have to be happy with that. But it was a very hard race, especially at the beginning. I was quite surprised when we started the race. When you’re at the back of the field there is no chance to see anything and it’s like driving blind. I made up some ground but I damaged my front wing when I touched Nick. It was so difficult to see, I misjudged my braking point and hit him on the back. That meant we had to bring our pit stop forward by a few laps to fix the damage. Later when I had a clear run for five or six laps I was pretty quick and on the pace but as soon as I caught Kimi I was stuck behind him. I couldn’t see the standing water so I had to back off, particularly in the areas where you could overtake. In the end I got past and we were able to bring it home 7th.”
Tadashi Yamashina – Team Principal: “Timo didn’t quite put together his last qualifying run yesterday but he never gave up. Today he twice found himself at the back of the field but he showed great spirit to overtake so many cars and bring home two points. Jarno struggled to make the most of his strong grid position today so we will have to check the data to find out what went wrong. Still, his qualifying performance was good so I’m sure he will do his best to make the podium again at the next race. We still have our spirit to win and we will fight again in Bahrain next week.”
