ON THE FINISHING STRAIGHT

Panasonic Toyota Racing completed its penultimate day of testing before the start of the 2007 season at the Circuito Permanente de Jerez today. Race drivers Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli took the wheel for the private test in Spain and both drivers helped the team put the finishing touches to the TF107 prior to the Australian Grand Prix. Today's programme focused on finalising the team's package for the opening race of the season, with a Melbourne-specification aerodynamic update on the car for the first time. Some rain in the morning meant track temperatures were quite low to start the day, around 18ｰC, but the track dried during the morning and in the afternoon conditions improved with track temperatures hitting 22ｰC. Ralf and Jarno were able to put plenty of laps on the car, gathering important information which will help the team prepare for the Melbourne race, as well as practicing launches. The driving line-up will remain the same tomorrow, for the final day of pre-season testing.

Ralf Schumacher - Chassis TF107/01
Best Lap Time: 1min 20.389s
Position: 2nd
Total laps: 81
Total distance: 358.6kms

“Today went quite well and we did a lot of useful work. The first race of the season is very close now so we tried a few different set-ups which went well. We are making progress and it was good to be able to do a lot of laps today without any problems with the car. We now have only one day of testing left before the season starts so we need to make the most of the opportunity and really push to be ready for Melbourne. ”

Jarno Trulli - Chassis TF107/04
Best Lap Time: 1min 19.710s
Position: 1st
Total laps: 112
Total distance: 495.9kms

“We did a lot of laps today, more than two race distances, so I am pleased with how things have gone. After our tests in Bahrain it is good to put some more miles on the car and try out a few set-up things. We had some work to do after Bahrain and we have made a good start today. I am optimistic we will continue to make progress tomorrow on our final day.”

Dieter Gass - Chief Engineer Race and Test

“We had quite a successful day today, even though we had a slow start because of the wet track in the morning. Still we got a lot of items tested in our final preparation for the first race of the season, running the complete race one aero package for the very first time today. Jarno had a trouble-free day and ran through the complete programme working on finalising the set-up preparation for Melbourne. Ralf spun twice and lost a little bit of time. Apart from that he had no major issues as well and, like Jarno, we worked on car set-up.”