Panasonic Toyota Racing continued its testing programme today at the Circuit Paul Ricard. Although there was a strong breeze blowing the whole day, the sun was shining and temperatures were moderate enough for both Jarno Trulli and Ricardo Zonta to put in some good running. In the morning both drivers continued testing different set-ups, while the afternoon was spent trying a new softer Bridgestone tyre compound. Testing is planned to carry on tomorrow with Olivier Panis and Ricardo Zonta.

SOFT SHELL
Jarno Trulli joined the test session a day earlier to get the most out of the good weather in the south of France.

Jarno Trulli - Chassis TF106/01
Best lap time: 1m05.702s
Total laps: 72
Total distance: 274.896km


"We worked on more tyre and set-up testing to evaluate tyres for Australia because so far we have just found out that we have to go softer on our car in order to make the car work. At any rate we are looking at many options to understand how the car is behaving. One step is to work with a softer compound, which we were using this afternoon. Overall, we are mainly pushing hard this week to be competitive at the next races and I am sure we will have some interesting data to take with us to Australia."

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RICARDO!
Even on his 30th birthday, Ricardo Zonta was in action at Paul Ricard putting in 121 laps. Once the test session was completed, he celebrated with the team, having dinner and blowing out candles on his birthday cake.

Ricardo Zonta - Chassis TF106/02
Best lap time: 1m05.738s
Total laps: 121
Total distance: 461.978km


"Today was quite good, and everything worked well. The wind in the morning was upsetting the car in the fast corners but the track was cleaner and hotter than yesterday, so this was better for us. We found some positive results with the warming up and consistency of the tyres on my car and this is definitely good for the future. In addition, everything was reliable on the car. We did 121 laps without any problems and this was also an encouraging factor."

BUILDING BRIDGES(TONES)
Gerd Pfeiffer, Test Team Manager summarizes the day's testing.

"Today was a good day as we got through a lot of test items for the coming races. With both drivers we focused on gaining data for the tyre choice in Australia. Yesterday we worked with new constructions, whereas today we tried some new compounds. Tomorrow, we will do some long runs and work more with the new compounds."