Thank you all for your continued support. Here is my report from the Australian Grand Prix, site of the third race of the season.

	Being a temporary circuit, the Albert Park Circuit, home of the Australian Grand Prix, is considered one of the most troublesome courses in the series. Despite the difficulty of the course, Ralf drove a strong race, taking advantage of opportunities to finish third.

As a result of our testing, we were able to find a compound among those prepared by Bridgestone that we were happy with. We don't know what will happen for certain, but we embarked toward Melbourne expecting a strong performance, even given somewhat low temperatures.

Being the third racing expedition outside Europe, we haven't made any major changes except for the tires. Since the opening race in Bahrain, we have transported the cars to Malaysia and then Australia without returning them to Germany (TMG). We have made some minor parts changes, but basically the cars are the same as they have been.

This is the second race for Ralf's (Schumacher) engine, since engine trouble during qualifying in the previous race forced us to replace the engine on the spot. Jarno (Trulli) is in his third race, so we were able to put a fresh engine in his car. The engine specifications are the same as what we have been running.

Conducting Friday's Program as Planned

We walked the circuit Thursday evening. Normally we would walk the circuit much earlier in the day, but with support races beginning Thursday, we only had time to do our walk in the evening. The sun went completely down at about the 12th corner, but you could say we walked the "complete circuit" after a fashion.

My first impression of the course was that it was narrow. Actually walking the course in person gave an impression of concrete walls pressing in on you that you don't get watching the race on television. The course is flat, with almost not elevation changes, which made the walk quite easy. The track has small bumps, which don't matter when you're walking, but I think there will be sections where the car will bottom (use the full movement range of the suspension) when driving over them.

The track surface temperature was on the low side, but we saw tire warming behavior just as we saw during testing. I wasn't satisfied with our lap times and positions, but we did see an improved effect, as both cars were able to progress through the program as planned.

We left the first race in Bahrain wondering "why?" And I think we might have been helped by the ambient temperatures at the second race in Malaysia. We tried a lot of different since we couldn't get the tires to heat up. We once again ran through the paces during testing at Paul Ricard last week, and Bridgestone prepared tires anticipating lower temperatures in Australia. I think we were able to do everything we had in mind without any setbacks or modifications.

We received weather reports indicating rain during the night. We were worried, since rain could mean starting a new program all over from the beginning. We also had some indication that despite a wet morning session, the afternoon qualifying would dry out. Our intent was to set up both cars to make it to the final qualifying round, based on a dry qualifying session.

In spite of his illness, Trulli challenged the Australian Grand Prix, just missing what likely would have been a strong race. Having battled trouble all throughout the second qualifying session, Jarno was knocked out of the race early on.

Accomplishing the Goals Set on Friday in Qualifying

We considered all of the possibilities related to rain. Would it rain and then stop before qualifying? Would it start to rain during qualifying? We conducted our morning program anticipating either scenario. The morning free practice session started with a wet track surface, and I was afraid that the course would present problems. The track just would not dry out between Turn 3 and immediately before Turn 6, probably owing to the fact that trees lined either side of that section. I feared the worst if similar circumstances existed during the qualifying session.

In the end, we had a dry qualifying session, and both Ralf and Jarno made the top ten, accomplishing the goals we had set the day before. Although a complete sense relief was probably not warranted, we were still somewhat reassured. I do feel bad for Jarno. A bird hit and damaged his rear wing while he was driving, and then trouble with the electrical system caused the gear box to break.

When Jarno came back to the garage, we immediately set about checking the condition of his car, first replacing his wing. We continued to work on the electrical system and gears until the last moments before the final qualifying session, hoping to have the car ready, but we finally decided to take the replacement route. Replacing parts during the last qualifying can only be done under the supervision of the FIA. As such, we had to postpone Jarno's participation in the final session.

The tires were designed to cope with low temperature tracks, and I think they worked out well for us. Little-by-little, I feel that we are seeing the results of our labors. However, we still aren't at the right lap times. We thought we had resolved reliability during testing, but we saw in qualifying that there are still some kinks to work out.

While we publicly stated in our post-qualifying press release that we would "do our best to win points toward the top finishers," in our hearts, we were aiming much higher. We know that anything can happen in the world of racing. We also have time before the European round, and we intend to resolve outstanding issues, including car performance and reliability.

	The Panasonic Toyota Racing team, winning its first podium finish of the season. While the first two races were painful, the team seems to have found some clues, securing third on the podium this time. Panasonic Toyota Racing heads to the European round three weeks from now with positive momentum.

I think what made our race was our pit work when Michael Schumacher spun out, brining the safety car on the track. After that, it was Ralph's push during the safety car lap. I think these are the two factors that most directly led to our results. Of course, this was also due to the help of the Bridgestone tires that allowed Ralf to push the pace.

In my opinion, we were able to make the most use of the specification that we selected at last week's tests. When the safety car first came out, the tires acted slippery, causing concern as we fell back. But after that, the tires worked terrifically. I was relieved when I saw how we were able to push forward.

Meanwhile, Jarno was forced to retire during the first lap, which again shows the ups and downs of racing. Lining up on the third corner, Jarno was pushed, spinning him out. I just wondered if Jarno wasn't quite able to hit his groove. In fact, Jarno was sick during the weekend. He still had a slight fever on the day of qualifying. But Jarno will shrug everything off, going into the next race with a fresh attitude.

What we accomplished at this race was the result of every individual on the team working extremely hard. There are still things we need to address to completely ready the cars, but now we are starting to see exactly what we need to do. We have three weeks before the next race, so now that we have brought out the performance of the tires, we want to add car performance to the mix.

I ask you all for your continued support for the activities of Panasonic Toyota Racing.