While we weren’t able to defend the pole position after the second round of qualifying, Jarno did make his third podium finish of the year, and Ralf finished 4th to ensure that both cars earned a good basket of points. As of today, we are protecting our standing as 2nd in both the Drivers’ Championship and the Constructors’ Championship. On another note, we have been able to complete all five races this year, which is an achievement to be proud of. Panasonic Toyota Racing is the only team so far this year with no DNF results for either car.

I’m really happy that we were able to perform up to expectations here in Spain, where our machines are really suited to the course. Even though we have narrowed the gap with the top F1 teams, both Renault and McLaren have demonstrated gains in speed, so we really have no time to rest. And we still haven’t found our way to the top spot on the podium.

• Sacrificing pole position for race strategy
We were sitting on pole position after the first round of qualifying, but we approached the second qualifying round Sunday morning more focused on the race, making our flying laps with full fuel loads. Of course, pole position is important, but it’s even more important to win the race. The road surface during Sunday morning qualifying was even worse than we expected, and both of our drivers had problems with understeer. Ralf, in particular, had a tough time. Jarno fought his machine’s understeer throughout his entire attack run.

Jordan had sprayed some oil on the straights, but that didn’t appear to affect anyone’s performance. From a race standpoint, we had hoped that both cars could have started somewhere in the top four positions, but ultimately Ralf qualified 4th and Jarno 5th. I can’t say that I have any complaints about Raikkonen on the pole. He did an amazing job recovering from his mistake yesterday and still finishing in the time he recorded. It was pretty obvious that Webber ran with an extremely light fuel load Sunday morning to move up in position.

I think in our case we were lucky there was an interval after the attack runs of both of our cars, so we could ease back into the pits. That helped us conserve some fuel.

Jarno and Ralf, racing in tandem during the last stages of the Spanish GP.

• A terrific podium finish
The weather reports said that Sunday would be overcast, but the weather turned out to be very nice, and temperatures kept rising. Actually, the option tires we selected were more of a low- to mid-temperature tire, so we were a little concerned about the possibility of blistering as track temperature rose. But in the end, the option tires seemed to perform the best, so that’s what we went with. Michelin told us that at these higher temperatures, the tires might cause some problems. In fact, on Friday Jarno had a tire blister (we compensated with the car setup). I think most Michelin teams went with the option tires. The track temperature was higher than we expected, but our tires held up through the entire race. I think at least part of that was our drivers’ ability to conserve their tires.

At the start, we were a little worried about Webber being in front of us with such a light fuel load, but Ralf was able to overtake him on the first corner to gain 3rd place. Jarno kept his spot at 5th. I think it was a good start for our team. The pace was good over the first stint, too, which is why we decided to go with a little more fuel than planned during the first pit stop. Our strategy was to go long before the second pit, gaining time while the others were off the track. Our heavier fuel load is why we fell a little off the pace early in the second stint, but it was something we planned. Unfortunately, we didn’t count on Alonso coming out of the pits in front of both of our cars. We had really hoped to be in front of him at that point in the race. Alonso being in front held us back for a few laps.

I think the cars were in good balance throughout the race. During the second stint, Jarno reported that his car had a slight tendency to oversteer, so we lowered the front wing slightly during the second pit. All we did to Ralf’s car was adjust the air pressure a bit. During the last part of the race, our cars were running hard and extremely close to each other. I was a little panicky at the thought that they might crash together. During the middle of the race, Jarno had a little balance trouble, which prevented him from going faster, and Ralf kept pushing from behind. We were all quite surprised by the flames coming off Jarno’s car after the first pit. I am guessing that some fuel leaked onto the cowl as the fuel rig was taken back out, and that caught on fire. Fortunately, there wasn’t any damage to the car.

Until this year, Panasonic Toyota Racing had never finished 3rd. Now we have our sights firmly set on a victory. While we may have closed the gap with Renault, McLaren has gotten faster. At any rate, I can honestly tell you that it’s really tough to come out on top in the F1 series.

• A radically upgraded aero package for Monaco!
The Monaco GP is one of Jarno’s favorite circuits. And I don’t think Monaco is unsuited to our cars, either. Jarno won the Monaco GP last year (for Renault), so we have high expectations. I probably don’t even have to mention that we have prepared a special aerodynamics package specifically for Monaco.

That’s all for now. I’ll meet you here again at the official website of Panasonic Toyota Racing. Please keep cheering us on! Until then…