Glock gets his hands on the TF109 at Portimao
Panasonic Toyota Racing enjoyed significantly better weather for day three of its test at Algarve Motor Park in Portugal. Following two rain-affected days, the clear skies on day three were a welcome relief and allowed Timo Glock his first chance to put the new TF109 through its paces.
A damp track in the morning meant extreme wet Bridgestone Potenza tyres were required for the early running but by mid-morning Timo switched to standard wets. A busy start saw him comparing set-up options, while he also got important experience and information about the movable front wing which is new for 2009. However, at just after 11am his car stopped on track due to an oil pipe disconnection, which caused a small fire and necessitated lengthy repairs. He was back on track in the afternoon and will continue testing tomorrow for the final day in Portugal.
Timo Glock - Chassis TF109-01
Best lap time: 1min 30.878s
Position: 4th
Total laps: 64
"My first impression of the new car is good; I am happy with it. In the morning, on a wet track, I felt pretty comfortable and it was easy to drive; there were no real problems. Then we had the issue with the oil pipe which cost us some time but the guys worked really hard to repair the car and we got some laps at the end in dry conditions. Those first laps on a dry track felt pretty good and gave me a positive feeling but we didn't have time to really set the car up properly. It would be nice to do a lot more laps tomorrow but the weather forecast isn't very good."
Pascal Vasselon, Senior General Manager Chassis
"We had no rain thankfully today but still this morning the track was wet and the temperatures were quite low. Due to the limited running we did on the first two days, we had a really busy programme planned for Timo, including set-up investigations, some brake work and preliminary tests on the movable front wing. We were making great progress in the first hours but unfortunately an oil pipe became disconnected and Timo had to stop on track with the car on fire. It took quite a bit of time to clean and repair the car but we managed to complete some laps later in the afternoon and got some interesting data."
