Ralf Schumacher and Trulli qualified sixth and seventh respectively and were hoping for a strong points-scoring race. They finished the opening lap in eighth and ninth places after poor starts, losing out to a fast-starting Kimi Raikkonen, who went between the two TF106s, and then to Jenson Button’s Honda.

Ralf tried to pass his team mate on the inside of Turn 1 on lap 16, but lost his nose in the attempt and had to come into the pits. The plan had been to refuel much later – Trulli, for example, running to lap 27 – and the unscheduled stop dropped Ralf right down the field. He eventually retired after 31 laps with a suspected electronic problem.

“Obviously, it’s not the ideal scenario when you have a coming-together with your team mate,” Ralf said, “because you always want to have a positive team atmosphere. But, Toyota is a racing team, the drivers don’t have team orders and we are allowed to overtake. Unfortunately it didn’t come off today and I suffered the consequences. It’s a race to forget and I will now put Spain behind me and look ahead to Monte Carlo.”

Trulli explained: “These things sometimes happen in racing but, of course, it’s never nice when it’s your team mate. From my side, I was taking my normal racing line, I didn’t close the door and, in fact, I didn’t actually know that Ralf had even hit me. All I noticed was that he had disappeared from my mirrors.

“I struggled a little bit for pace in the opening stint because there was some graining on old tyres. The second stint was better and then the problems returned in the final stint. I was still hoping that I could score a point but unfortunately I lost out to Mark Webber and Nick Heidfeld, who both ran longer second stints than me.”

Reigning world champion Fernando Alonso was a delighted winner of his first Spanish Grand Prix in front of his adoring fans, opening up his championship lead to 15 points over Michael Schumacher, who finished second for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro. Giancarlo Fisichella made it a Renault 1-3, while Felipe Massa finished fourth in the second Ferrari. Raikkonen took four points for fifth place for Team McLaren Mercedes, ahead of the Lucky Strike Hondas of Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello. Nick Heidfeld claimed the final point for the BMW Sauber F1 Team.

Toyota’s Senior General Manager, Chassis, Pascal Vasselon, summed up the race: “I think we will have a busy evening of data analysis. Our poor starts certainly did not help and we need to understand the reasons behind them. We were fuelled for a long first stint but were not significantly heavier than a lot of those cars around us. We also need to understand why Jarno struggled for pace with balance problems throughout. Ralf obviously lost ground with the front wing change and a suspected electronics problem caused his retirement.”

The Formula 1 circus now moves on to the special challenge of Monte Carlo, F1’s glamour event in the tiny Principality of Monaco on May 28.