28/07/2008
NEWS STORY
Ahead of this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix, Toyota has issued a statement regarding the incident which saw Timo Glock crash out of the recent German Grand Prix.
The statement reads as follows:
"Following Timo Glock's incident during the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim, Toyota Motorsport initiated a thorough investigation.
"This initially established that a rear toelink (trackrod) gave way causing Timo to lose control of the car, but confirmed that there were no exceptional circumstances before or during the incident in the German Grand Prix. Further investigation has established that damage sustained in the British Grand Prix two weeks earlier was the cause. During that race Timo suffered several incidents.
"As is normal practice, some parts from the British Grand Prix were carried over to Hockenheim, including most of the rear right suspension. Although the parts were subjected to the normal test and screening process following the Silverstone race and passed fit for use at Hockenheim, it has become apparent that it did not identify an issue which subsequently led to the incident at Hockenheim.
"As a result of this investigation, Toyota Motorsport has revised its inspection processes to include such cases and is extremely confident there will be no repeat."
At the weekend, Red Bull's David Coulthard called on the FIA to launch a probe into the structural integrity of the TF108, citing the example set earlier in the season when his team's RB4 was fully investigated following suspension failures in Australia and Malaysia. At that time, Race Stewards called on the Milton Keynes outfit to provide a detailed report on the structural integrity of the Adrian Newey designed car.
Writing for the ITV website, Coulthard wrote: "I didn't hear of any investigation into the structural integrity of the Toyota, but presumably that will happen because when we had a suspension breakage in Malaysia we came under the spotlight of the FIA in a way that was publicly uncomfortable for the team."
Prior to Glock's failure at Hockenheim, Jarno Trulli crashed out at Silverstone in Friday practice following a rear wing failure.