Preparing carefully to avoid the risk of any more penalties

The team tested the car’s affinity for the circuit on an untried hard tire compound and a new front wing specification. As of Friday free practice, the car had been set up without either of these factors presenting a problem.

Regardless of the strength of one’s position, standing up alone to try and overturn a decision takes quite a bit of courage. Ultimately, our point of view won out, and Jarno was reinstated to his P3 finish for the Australian GP, making us all very happy with the outcome. At the beginning of the race last week, both of our cars were forced to start from the pit lane despite having qualified in the top 10, after we were ruled to be in violation of aerodynamic regulations. This was a major setback, especially considering the fact that the violation had no impact on our performance whatever. Here, as one of the top teams coming in to the Malaysian GP, we took extra care to avoid any troubles, especially those of the type we experienced in Australia.
With only one week between Australia and Malaysia, we didn’t make any significant hardware changes for this race, but we did bring a new front wing specification. A soft and a hard tire specification were prepared for the Malaysian GP, and we arrived at the circuit hearing rumors that the hard compound in particular was a different spec from what we used during winter testing.

A valuable Friday, despite middle-of-the-pack results

Jarno and Timo were set up with different tires during the second round of pit stops. Since it took some time for the rain to fall in earnest, Timo (with the shallow-grooved “intermediate” tires) was able to move up quickly in position, while Jarno reported that his deep-grooved “full-wet” tires began deteriorating on only their second trip around the circuit.

Both the soft and hard tires brought by Bridgestone to Malaysia were one grade harder than their respective models the week prior. Here at the notoriously hot Sepang International Circuit, we looked forward to the performance of these tires with equal parts anticipation and worry. Our task was to figure out how to keep the soft tires (which performed well at low temperatures) from deteriorating under the hot race conditions, while at the same time learning how to get heat into the harder tire compound, designed for working under higher temperatures.
Ultimately, our concerns proved to be groundless, and we were able to run through our Friday program in good order. The hard tires demonstrated continued stable performance (likely due to the high temperatures at Sepang); the soft tires did not show any significant deterioration, even during long runs. Our new front wing also appeared to be effective under the conditions at Sepang, with both of our drivers reporting a good feel for the car. Despite being buried in the middle of the time sheets, we finished Friday free practice with considerable momentum and direction for the next two days of the race weekend.

Missing the pole by the barest of margins; optimum attacks yield P2 and P3 on the starting grid

Tire selection paid off, with Timo displaying virtuoso overtaking on his way to a podium finish as the rain began to fall in Sepang. Still, the weather-affected result was somewhat disappointing; the team believed that an even better result was at hand if the race hadn’t been shortened.

Overnight rains washed away all of the rubber that had built up on the track during Friday, so we struggled with a lack of grip during Saturday morning practice. We exchanged information with the TMG factory during the prior evening, and decided that we were headed in the right direction with our setup.
As with the Australian GP, qualifying was another cliff-hanger—a battle of blazing time attacks. We were frustrated with our Q3 (final qualifying period) time attacks last week, but this time we were happy not only with the result, but with our overall performance as well. Not to be greedy, but I really hoped to get pole position. We missed P1 by only .09 seconds.
Meanwhile, Timo Glock struggled with the car’s setup throughout Saturday practice, but was still able to capture P5 in qualifying. The drivers at P3 and P4 were both penalized for various reasons, and this allowed Timo to move up two spots on the grid. Starting from a solid P2 and P3, our minimum goal was a podium finish, and we were seriously looking for a victory. One nagging concern was the unpredictable nature of the weather. The rains poured every night from Thursday through Saturday, and the forecast called for a 50% to 70% change of rain Sunday evening. Even so, we had performed testing in the rain, and we believed we would be able to turn in a strong race no matter what the weather was like.

On-target strategy leads to a second consecutive podium, with Timo at P3; the first two races of the year give us high hopes for a 2009 victory

Jarno captured P2 in qualifying, and after being forced back slightly after the start, he drove a tenacious race like the veteran he is. Jarno looked back on the weekend as a bit unlucky for him, but certainly turned in a result leading to a positive outlook for future races.

Since the race was scheduled to start in the late afternoon, we knew there was a high likelihood of a squall at some point. Unfortunately, it rained so hard that the red flag came out, suspending the race. Of course, no one expected that the race would actually end at that point. Nevertheless, Timo was credited with a P3 finish, making the second consecutive podium for Panasonic Toyota Racing, and a solid start to our 2009 season.
Held up at the start, Timo fell back to P8, but as the rain began to fall during Timo’s second pit stop on lap 22, the decision was made to go on intermediate tires (shallow grooves), rather than the full wets (deeper grooves) that many of the other drivers were opting for. This decision turned out to be the best one we could have made. When rain falls in Malaysia, it pours down in a solid sheet, which usually means changing over to full wet tires. We went by the book for Jarno, who had been racing at P3, setting up his car with the full wets. Given the fact that it wasn’t raining much at all in the pit lane, and considering Timo’s position in the race at the time, we felt like taking a considered gamble, and executing a different strategy for Timo.
When the red flag came up, Timo was actually running P2, but according to the regulations, the positions during the lap prior to the red flag are the positions fixed for a race suspension, and in the end, Timo was placed at P3. I can truly say that we are grateful that Timo was able to stay on the course in the middle of a real downpour, coming back around to the home straight.
Jarno missed out on a podium result by a slim margin, after performing well enough to have won the race under dry conditions. Unfortunately, we didn’t capture victory here in Malaysia, but we came away with the sense that we aren’t far from claiming the top spot sooner rather than later.
We will be carrying this momentum forward into the next series of back-to-back races, as we give it our all at the Chinese Grand Prix and the Bahrain Grand Prix. We ask for your continued support.