BACK IN THE OLD ROUTINE

With the first three flyaway races of 2008 completed, Panasonic Toyota Racing returned to European action today with testing at the Circuit de Catalunya. After the heat of Australia, Malaysia and Bahrain, conditions at Barcelona were cool by comparison with cloudy skies for much of the day and a shower shortly before the end of the day. Timo Glock was in the driving seat for Toyota as the team began preparations for the Spanish Grand Prix here on April 27. He concentrated on testing the TF108’s aerodynamics, which will feature a major update for the first European race, along with work on set–up and other systems. Timo had a solid day's running, putting in 93 laps. He is scheduled to continue testing for Toyota tomorrow at the same track.

Timo Glock - Chassis TF108-05
Best lap time: 1m 22.590s
Position: 8th
Total laps: 93
Total distance: 432.9km

“Today was a productive day and the team and mechanics did a good job. Everybody was focused on the new bits and pieces that we have brought and trying to find the right way forward. In the end that's what we did. I made one small mistake in the morning and spun off but it didn’t cost us too much running time. In the afternoon we collected a lot of data to look at and now we just have to fine–tune that. Hopefully overnight we can find the right direction from all the information we have gathered today. The time sheets might not show it yet but I’m happy with our work so far.”

Gerd Pfeiffer - Test Team Manager

“Our main aim for the week is to prepare for the Spanish Grand Prix here in ten days’ time. We will be concentrating on the revised aerodynamics package on the TF108 along with setting up the car for the race. Timo tested the new parts today and we collected some useful data, even if the afternoon was windy so that made it difficult to make detailed comparisons during his long runs. Overall we made it through a solid amount of work today so that was positive.”