AND SO, THE END IS NEAR

Panasonic Toyota Racing welcomed Jarno Trulli back into action at Jerez today for the penultimate testing day of 2008. Jarno joined Timo Glock on another warm and sunny Spanish day, taking over from Kamui Kobayashi. Jarno resumed the programme Kamui started, focusing on developing the new rear end and working with the 2008 standard ECU for the first time. The team's strong reliability record in testing means it is approaching the final day with the 30,000km annual limit getting close so Timo's programme was always scheduled to be shorter than Jarno's. A hydraulic problem in the morning gave Timo an unscheduled break but he had the chance to test slick Bridgestone Potenza tyres in the afternoon, as well as continuing his set-up work. A string of red flags late in the afternoon disrupted proceedings but both drivers will return tomorrow to bring the curtain down on 2008.

Timo Glock - Chassis TF107/03
Best Lap Time: 1min 19.687s
Position: 5th
Total laps: 40
Total distance: 177.12km

Jarno Trulli - Chassis TF107/06
Best Lap Time: 1min 20.775s
Position: 14th
Total laps: 99
Total distance: 438.372km

“It was a positive day and it was good to be back in the car. We ran through all our planned programme running with the 2008 ECU and rear end of the car. This was the first time I have driven with the 2008 standard ECU but of course I have a lot of experience of driving without traction control. The main task was to put in a lot of mileage which have successfully done today. We concentrated on finding new things with the set-up and improving the general ECU settings. All in all it was quite a good day.”

Pascal Vasselon - Senior General Manager Chassis

“Again we completed a lot of work today, although Timo did suffer a delay in the morning while a hydraulic issue was repaired. It was really interesting to run the slick tyres on Timo's car and we got a lot of information which will help us to adjust to the change in 2009. The difference between slicks and the current grooved tyres is quite big and the car behaves differently. Obviously there is more grip without the grooves and lap times are faster, which we expected, but it was interesting to note that the car balance and handling stays good with the slick tyres when we thought there could be difficulties. Jarno put in a hard day's work and we have made more progress with the 2008 ECU so now we look forward to concluding the year's testing tomorrow.”