Jarno Trulli finished a superb seventh for Panasonic Toyota Racing in the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim, right on the tail of the championship leading Mild Seven Renault cars after starting 20th on the grid!

Team mate Ralf Schumacher also drove a charging race to ninth place after making contact with David Coulthard's Red Bull on the opening lap, which required a pit stop for a new nose cone.

Trulli derived the best possible outcome from a weekend that started with car problems on Friday and obliged him to take the spare TF106B chassis for qualifying after an engine failure gave him a 10-place grid penalty on Saturday.

Jarno, who recently signed a three-year contract extension with the team, drove a sensational opening couple of laps and was up to 12th place by lap 3.

"I think I proved today that I don't give up!" Jarno said. "I was disappointed to have the problems on the first two days because I was confident that the performance level would be as strong here as it was at Magny Cours. The tyres were again very good and I was always aiming to get into the points in the race despite starting from the back. I think the fact that I managed to finish right with the Renaults shows the recent improvement in our package."

Schumacher thought he had the potential to qualify higher than the eighth place he achieved after contact with Pedro de la Rosa's McLaren at the hairpin in the final session of qualifying.

"I guess you could say I had more than my fair share of problems at the Hairpin this weekend!" Ralf smiled. "The first lap was typically busy with a lot of jockeying for position. I got tangled up with Coulthard and had to pit. Then, later on, I had to make another unscheduled stop when I got a Drive Through penalty for speeding in the pitlane. It wasn't my day today and I think to finish just 12s away from the points after four pit stops shows the pace that our car had. We are definitely on the up."

Michael Schumacher took an F1 hat-trick in front of his home fans and has closed the championship gap to Fernando Alonso to just 11 points with six races remaining, while Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro now trails Mild Seven Renault by just 10 points in the Constructors' Championship. Felipe Massa gave Ferrari its second 1-2 finish in three races, while pole position man Kimi Raikkonen claimed the final step on the podium after adopting a three-stop strategy. Jenson Button finished fourth for Lucky Strike Honda, ahead of the Renaults of Alonso and Giancarlo Fisichella. Behind Jarno, Christian Klien claimed the final point for Red Bull Racing.

Senior General Manager, Chassis, Pascal Vasselon commented: "It is fair to say we have had our share of incident this weekend but Jarno drove a brilliant race and Ralf really had no chance of scoring points after the opening lap, although he gave it a very good try.

"We knew, obviously, that Jarno would have his grid penalty applied before we went out for qualifying, so it was important for Jarno to be able to pass in the race. We therefore took a bit of wing off the car and that is why we had fastest times through the speed trap on Saturday. When you look at our level of performance in the race, it is very encouraging. Ralf and Jarno set the fourth and fifth quickest laps of the race, beaten only by the three drivers who finished on the podium. I think we can look forward to some strong performances in the remaining six races, starting next week in Hungary."