Sunny start for Toyota's Bahrain test
Panasonic Toyota Racing today kicked off two weeks of scheduled testing in Bahrain. After a brief morning delay when the circuit was shrouded in fog, the local climate came into its own with a day of warm sunny weather. Timo Glock took full advantage, putting the TF109 through its paces and clocking up 79 laps of set-up work on the new car. Timo will return to the cockpit tomorrow as Toyota continues its preparations for the 2009 season.
Timo Glock - Chassis TF109-01
Best lap time: 1min 33.501s
Position: 1st
Total laps: 82
"After the weather intervened during our Portugal test, this was our first real chance to give the TF109 a run in dry conditions. The fog held us up briefly at the start but it wasn't a major problem. We did a lot of set-up work and in the end we found a good direction. The car felt quite consistent so this is already a positive sign. We got through a lot of laps so this was an encouraging start to the test."
Dieter Gass, Chief Engineer Race and Test:
"This has already been a positive day and a good way to start our two weeks in Bahrain. It's great to be here in nice weather and this circuit always has very good temperatures for a winter test. We were slightly delayed by fog early this morning but from then on we could run at significant temperatures. We did some aero work and evaluated different set-up options, learning what direction we have to take with the new car, new aero package and new tyres. We had no major problems and completed some useful work."
