17.09.2007

JOE'S AWARD

On Saturday evening at Spa, Toyota hosted a party to celebrate 50 years of Toyota in motorsport. Formula 1 commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone attended the event and made a speech praising the company's commitment to motorsport.

Tadashi Arashima, the President of Toyota Motor Europe, welcomed the many guests with a speech marking the occasion. Ralf Schumacher, Jarno Trulli and Franck Montagny all attended and were joined by Chairman and Team Principal Tadashi Yamashina, President John Howett and Team Manager Richard Cregan.

Well-known faces from Toyota's rich motor racing history included former Team Principal Ove Andersson, Bjorn Waldegaard and Martin Brundle, all of whom have driven Toyotas to successes in the past. The trio, along with John and Richard, chatted on stage about their involvement in Toyota's motorsport activities.

Ove was the man who drew out the lucky winner of the quiz to win the grand prize of a Toyota Prius for three years.

The winner was British journalist Joe Saward who, despite being 46 years old, only passed his driving test two years ago! "It's pretty ironic actually," laughed the delighted Joe. "I bought a car about 20 years ago but failed my driving test and gave it to my flat-mate. I've only just bought my second car and registered it about a week ago. I guess I'll be selling it next week!"

NEWS FROM OUR RIVALS

The Belgian Grand Prix saw the battle for the drivers’ championship get even closer. Kimi Raikkonen’s win moves him to within 13 points of championship leader Lewis Hamilton, while Fernando Alonso is even closer – just two behind.

With only three races to go – in Japan, China and Brazil – the championship is set to go down to the wire with anyone of four drivers, including fourth-placed Felipe Massa, still capable of taking the crown. Hamilton has 97 points, Alonso 95, Raikkonen 84 and Massa 77. Jarno Trulli is in 13th place with 7 points and Ralf Schumacher is 14th, with 5 points.

However, in the constructors’ championship Ferrari hold a 71-point lead over BMW Sauber.

RACE REPORT

Panasonic Toyota Racing's Ralf Schumacher achieved a top 10 finish in the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa, round 14 of the 17-race FIA Formula 1 World Championship. Team-mate Jarno Trulli, who once again qualified solidly in the top 10, finished just behind in 11th.

Jarno was stuck in traffic after the first lap and unable to show his potential, with overtaking very difficult around the longest track on the Formula 1 calendar. He made his first pit stop on lap 14, switching to the soft Bridgestone tyres, and that gave him the chance to drive in clear air.

Unlike Jarno, Ralf was on a one-stop strategy and he stayed out until lap 20. When he resumed, he gradually made up positions as the cars around him pitted and he was pushing to break into the points in the closing stages. However he missed out on eighth place by less than four seconds.

“The race was okay. I did my best and I think we got the best out of the car, but unfortunately it was not quite enough for any points,” Ralf said. “Looking at it from that perspective, it is frustrating because we pushed the car to the limit and we hoped for more after our competitive pace in practice. On Friday it looked promising but we lost out compared to the other teams and now we need to look at the reasons for that.”

Jarno added: “I expected more from the race and if you look at the performance of the car when I was not in traffic, we were quite competitive and I was happy with the balance. Now we will focus on Fuji Speedway for the Japanese Grand Prix and I hope we can get a better result in our home race. We will be working hard in the test this week to improve and we will try our best as always.”

Ferrari claimed the first all-red front row of the season and pole position man Kimi Raikkonen went on to score his fourth victory of the year, narrowly beating team-mate Felipe Massa. It was a hat-trick of Spa wins for the Finnish driver. Fernando Alonso closed team mate Lewis Hamilton’s championship lead to just two points as the McLaren Mercedes cars finished in third and fourth places.

Nico Rosberg continued his string of points scoring finishes when he brought his Toyota-powered Williams home in sixth position, behind Nick Heidfeld in the first of the BMW Saubers. Mark Webber’s Red Bull finished seventh and Heikki Kovalainen was eighth for Renault as six different makes of cars scored points.

Team Principal Tadashi Yamashina underlined the team’s next target, which is to get back into the points at our home track, Fuji Speedway. He said: “We were expecting a better result from this race so it is a disappointing result. Our performances earlier in the weekend were quite strong so we were optimistic. Of course now we must prepare for the Japanese Grand Prix. We are focused on Fuji Speedway now and our target is to get a strong result.”