A HAPPY ENDING

Panasonic Toyota Racing today brought down the curtain on its pre-season testing programme with a fruitful private session at the Circuito Permanente de Jerez in Spain. With just eight days to go before the first practice sessions at Albert Park in Melbourne, Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli finalised preparations for the Australian Grand Prix today. On a dry day with air temperatures reaching a high of 20ｰC, the team again tried out its race-one aerodynamic package and worked on optimising set-ups before the long trip Down Under. Ralf's day was interrupted when he struck a bird but he was able to drive back to the pits where repairs were made. Neither driver suffered any technical problems as the team finished a long pre-season of testing on a very positive note.

Ralf Schumacher - Chassis TF107/01
Best Lap Time:1min 19.519s
Position: 2nd
Total laps: 60
Total distance: 265.6kms

“In general we have had a productive two days of testing and we have not had many problems at all, except for catching birds! It has been quite a painless test really and we have made good progress. We have worked hard all winter to improve the car and now we go to Melbourne where we will push hard for a strong start to the season. ”

Jarno Trulli - Chassis TF107/04
Best Lap Time: 1min 18.589s
Position: 1st
Total laps: 123
Total distance: 544.6kms

“It has been two useful days and we have checked some things on the car and pushed even further with car performance. We tried different things on the set-up with the latest aero package and they seemed to go well. I have to say the last two days have been good in terms of reliability so I am more confident now going to Melbourne.”

Dieter Gass - Chief Engineer Race and Test

“We had a very successful final preparation day for Melbourne. In perfect conditions throughout the whole day, we were concentrating again on fine-tuning the car set-up around our race one aero package and the tyres which we will use in Melbourne. Both drivers put in some competitive lap times and had no technical issues at all during the day. Ralf was a little bit unlucky when he hit a bird with the front left suspension, which had to be replaced for safety reasons as a consequence. This obviously caused us to lose some valuable running time. We are now more confidently heading towards Melbourne, where our target is to carry over the form we showed during our final two testing days.”