07/06/2009
NEWS STORY
Panasonic Toyota Racing delivered a determined performance to score points with both Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock in the Turkish Grand Prix at Istanbul Park today, strengthening its third place in the Constructors' Championship. Jarno claimed his fourth top-four finish of the season while Timo made up six places with a fighting drive to score points for the fifth time this year. Both drivers started on the hard Bridgestone Potenza tyres and in the run to the first corner Jarno moved up to third as Timo was pushed wide and lost ground. At the end of lap one Jarno was fourth and Timo 14th. At his first pit stop Jarno continued on the hard tyres while Timo's longer opening stint saw him run as high as fifth before pitting for another set of hard rubber. Jarno was in a tight battle for fourth place and a series of fast laps gave him the upper hand, so when he changed to the soft tyres for a short final stint he had the position. Timo was also charging hard and his speed in the middle stint lifted him to eighth. He was even quicker on soft tyres in the closing laps but narrowly missed out on seventh.
Jarno Trulli: "I am pleased with the race result and also with the car. We have worked really hard to find more performance and it's great to be back in the fight for a podium. The team deserve a lot of credit for the improvement this weekend, including the engineers who have made a good step with our starts. My start was incredible and I made up two places into the first corner, however I struggled a lot on the first lap with locking brakes so I dropped back to fourth. After that I got into a good rhythm and I was fighting hard with Nico Rosberg. He got ahead at the first pit stops but I bounced back and overtook at the second stops. I was really competitive towards the end when there was a lot of rubber down and it was enjoyable to be fighting at the front. I started the weekend with a positive feeling and we quickly found the right set-up so I am extremely happy to be back to a competitive level."
Timo Glock: "It was not easy to score points from 13th on the grid. At the start I was a bit unlucky; I got a good launch but I got caught at the exit of turn one and another car pushed me to the outside. I lost some positions so maybe the result could have been even better. But in the end I am happy to score a point because the car was spot on, really quick with race fuel. It's tricky to make up positions in Formula 1 but our strategy was right, the pit stops were great and the set-up worked really well so thanks to the team for a good job. Our target before the race was to get into the points so I am pleased to achieve that and I expect even more at the next race."
Tadashi Yamashina - Team Principal: "It is very satisfying to have both drivers finish in the points here. We are back fighting at the front of the grid and that is where we want to be at every race. This was the best result we could achieve after qualifying which is a credit to the good work done by the team. However, we obviously want to be back on the podium so even though we showed very clear improvement, we will continue to push as hard as possible to find more performance. There is still a gap between us and the other top teams so we want to close that for the next race. I am optimistic for the British Grand Prix; we believe the Silverstone track should suit our car because it plays to our strengths therefore we want an even better result there."