Toyota starts testing at Catalunya

Panasonic Toyota Racing returns to the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona for a three-day test programme. Most attention this week will be on preparations for the Grand Prix at Silverstone. Drivers Ricardo Zonta and Olivier Panis were on hand today putting in a cumulative 214 laps even though rainfall from the previous night delayed testing in the morning. Tomorrow Jarno Trulli and Ricardo Zonta will be at the wheel to continue testing for the team.

Olivier Panis "Today was a positive day for the team. Considering the track conditions I was able to do a lot of running. On my car, we were taking a lot of measurements and testing different set-ups, all the while gaining data on the tyres and their performance. We did not have any reliability problems with my car, and the times we ran today are also a positive sign."

Ricardo Zonta "We did a few laps in the morning, but the day did not really get underway until after the lunch break when the track finally dried up and we could work on our tyre and balance testing. We lost a little time when the fire extinguisher in my car began to leak, so the team had to repair this before we could go out again. Tomorrow we will continue to work on setting up the right balance for the car."

Team Manager, Richard Cregan "Today's testing went very well with both Olivier and Ricardo completing their programs and pushing hard to put in over 200 laps. We were mainly focused on getting through a Bridgestone tyre test that we had planned. Due to the rain and wet track in the morning we completed a wet tyre test with Olivier and in the afternoon both drivers continued with long runs to help prepare the tyre choice for the next race. While Olivier did his running in the old car, Ricardo was driving the B-car collecting further data on its behaviour."