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02.06.2008

ILE BE BACK

Panasonic Toyota Racing makes the trip across the Atlantic this weekend for the Canadian Grand Prix, the only race in North America this season. The temporary Gilles Villeneuve Circuit in Montreal is located on the Ile Notre–Dame in the St Lawrence River and has hosted Formula 1 since 1978. The 4.361km track is notable for its fast straights broken up by chicanes, as well as the very slow Virage de Casino hairpin, and this makes extremely high demands on brakes, which require more cooling in Canada than any other track in Formula 1. Toyota has a strong record in the Canadian Grand Prix, having finished in the points for the last three seasons, while Timo Glock’s seventh place on his Formula 1 debut in 2004 came in Montreal. With an evolution of the braking system on the car for this race, and after simulating the Montreal lay–out at last month’s Paul Ricard test, the team will arrive in North America well prepared and ready to add to its nine points so far in the Constructors’ Championship.

Jarno Trulli (Car 11)

“Montreal is one of the best cities we visit in Formula 1 so I’m really looking forward to this weekend. The atmosphere in Montreal and at the circuit itself is just fantastic – there are so many people around in the city, and they are so enthusiastic about F1, it’s great. I quite enjoy the circuit because it has a nice flow to it and it is reasonably challenging, so a combination of a fun track and a great city make this race one of my favourites. I’ve never really had so much luck in Montreal and last year wasn’t a nice race for me because of Robert Kubica’s accident, so I expect a more positive weekend this time. We have a completely different package compared to Monaco and I’m confident we can get a better result. The weather and traffic made things difficult for me in Monaco but I know we have a much better package than the result shows. My goal is to return to the points and I think we have a good chance of doing that.”

Timo Glock (Car 12)

“I will never forget my first Grand Prix in 2004, when I finished seventh in Canada. It was an amazing experience and I am very proud of my two points on my debut. I also drove on the same track in 2005 in Champ Car and I finished second, in fact I almost won the race but second was still my best result of the season. So far Montreal has been a great track for me and I have a good record there so hopefully I can get another positive result; certainly I believe we have a car which is capable of scoring points. As a circuit Montreal is all about chicanes and there is a lot of heavy braking as you slow from high speed, so this puts a lot of strain on the brakes. But we have prepared for this so I don’t expect any problems. Monaco was very disappointing for me because we had the opportunity to score points but things didns go our way. We have to forget about that now and focus on being competitive in the next race.”

Pascal Vasselon – Senior General Manager Chassis

“For me Montreal is one of the best races of the season because the atmosphere is fantastic, probably second only to Monaco. The circuit is more or less a street circuit and generally there is quite low tyre grip as the track is rarely used. Obviously after Monaco we will make changes to the aerodynamic package, moving from our highest downforce configuration to medium–low downforce. We have a few improvements to bring on to the car for this race as well, with an evolution to the braking system which should bring extra performance. The most challenging technical aspect of this race comes with brake cooling. The cars reach very high speeds before the chicanes and then need to slow down quickly and this puts a huge amount of energy through the brakes, causing brake temperatures to be a serious issue. However, I am sure we will be able to cope and I am also confident we can improve on our Monaco result, which was very disappointing for the whole team.”