Jarno Trulli underlined Toyota’s step forward in performance with a solid charge to fifth place in Sunday’s European Grand Prix at Valencia, while Hungary star Timo Glock also made it into the points having been compromised at the start.
After being out-shone in qualifying by his on-song team-mate, Jarno Trulli re-took the initiative at Valencia, outpacing Timo Glock to seventh place on the grid. From there the Italian hustled is way up to fifth at the chequered flag.
“After our difficult practice yesterday, we completely changed my set-up for today. Then we had a gearbox oil pump problem this morning that meant I could not try it out.”
“So in a way I was driving blind this afternoon but I used my experience, I concentrated very hard and I made it through into Q3. I made a mistake on my last run but I am still very happy with what we achieved today.”
“I’m also delighted with the way the car is developing and the fact that we can always fight for the top ten and score points. That is again our target tomorrow. It’s important and realistic and it will be an interesting race. Here, more than anywhere, anything can happen and it should be a great event.”
Timo Glock once again impressed behind the wheel of his Toyota having clawed his way up to seventh from thirteenth on the grid.
“I don’t know what went wrong but I just didn’t get the lap together in the second session and that was that. We definitely had the chance to be higher, in the top ten, but it was a difficult qualifying in the end.”
“For me the prime tyres seemed to work better but I struggled to get temperature into the tyres in the first sector of my last lap in Q2. So it was just not my day today.”
“I had a heavy cold overnight and didn’t feel particularly well, but no excuses. I think the car was good enough but it just didn’t work out. Of course we will do our best to make up positions tomorrow. There could be safety car periods so we will aim to make the most of our freedom with the strategy.”
Toyota chiefs were delighted to see both their cars firmly in the top ten again: “Altogether it has been a very difficult day and a disappointing qualifying result,” said Pascal Vasselon, Toyota’s Senior General Manager. “Yesterday we had a very competitive Friday, especially with Timo, and now things have turned around. Jarno did a fantastic job because he could not run in P3 this morning due to a gearbox oil pump problem.”
“But that did not stop him and all his laps apart from his last lap in Q3 were very good. For Timo, today was not as successful as yesterday. He was on the pace in Q1 but Q2 did not go as expected so we will have to investigate what happened.”
“After the overnight rain the track was green again today but the tyre situation is clear. The positive thing for us is that we are in good position to defend against safety cars tomorrow and make sure that both cars are not caught out by the same safety car period.”
