Trouble-free friday for Toyota
Panasonic Toyota Racing today began its preparations for the Hungarian Grand Prix with a busy day of work around the Hungaroring. The last grand prix may have featured variable weather but this morning the Budapest circuit was basking in its usual heat. Then the clouds arrived after lunch and there was a light shower 20 minutes before the end of the afternoon session.
The forecast for the weekend remains surprisingly unsettled with the possibility of further rain. For Toyota, Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli both enjoyed two trouble-free sessions of work. Jarno ended the afternoon with the 9th fastest time while Ralf was 11th. The team will now look to build on this as it prepares for qualifying and Sunday’s race.
Jarno Trulli (Car 12, Chassis TF107/06)
First Session 12th 30 laps completed Lap Time: 1m 24.318s (+1.928s)
Second Session 9th 35 laps completed Lap Time: 1m 21.857s (+0.938s)
“Today we made it through our programme smoothly and we did work on both sets of tyres to get an idea about the balance. The main problem has been understeer and front tyre graining. Obviously there is still a lot of work to do but it is good to be back at this track because I normally like it. The weather is still a bit unpredictable and there is a chance that we could see more rain so we’ll have to bear that in mind. The fight for the midfield spaces is very hard and minor factors can affect the course of the whole weekend. At the last race we were unfortunate not to get a result so this time we will be looking to rectify that.”
Ralf Schumacher (Car 11, Chassis TF107/05)
First Session 10th 27 laps completed Lap Time: 1m 23.802s (+1.412s)
Second Session 11th 29 laps completed Lap Time: 1m 21.912s (+0.993s)
“We had a decent day and we did some good running. We made it through our programme and it went quite well. We had no problems and now I’m looking forward to qualifying where we should aim for the top ten. This circuit has generally been quite good for me and I like racing here. It’s not a quick track but the rhythm of it is enjoyable and it makes for a good grand prix. The last few races we’ve been in good positions but for many reasons we haven’t scored points. It’s very important for us to convert our pace into results so we will be fighting for any points we can score here.”
Dieter Gass, Chief Engineer Race and Test “That was a usual Friday session. We managed to get through everything we had planned without any technical problems. We have a new front wing and some modifications to the floor here and we made it through a lot of work on the tyres. There is not as much of a difference between the two compounds as we were expecting and we found issues with graining on both. So I think it will be very important to handle the tyres properly on Sunday to get the best possible performance. Today shows again that the midfield is very close together so it will be important to get the most out of qualifying to set us up for the race.”
