Toyota finish hot Jerez test

Toyota have finished their Jerez test this week after another day battling with the temperatures. The 3 day test was for the test drivers Panis and Zonta aimed at developing new parts for the TF106B, while the two race drivers prepared themselves and their cars for the upcoming French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours.

Team Panasonic Toyota was present at the Circuito Permanente de Jerez, Spain (4.428km) for three days:

Jarno Trulli: Best lap: 1m18.179s, total laps: 187
Ricardo Zonta: Best lap: 1m18.743s, total laps: 99
Ralf Schumacher: Best lap: 1m18.813s, total laps: 151
Olivier Panis: Best lap: 1m19.059s, total laps: 85

Today's testing finished off Panasonic Toyota Racing's three day test programme in Jerez. While battling high air and track temperatures, the team was able to prepare for the French Grand Prix taking place next weekend. The first day of testing saw Ricardo Zonta and Olivier Panis covering general test items, while Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli took over their respective TF106B cars, preparing for the Grand Prix and driving them for the first time in Jerez. Since winter testing, the last time the team visited the Circuito Permanente De Jerez in February, the TF106 has undergone continuous development and the team hopes this will help them vie for points at Magny-Cours.

Best lap time: 1m18.921s
Total laps: 86
Total distance: 380.808kms

"It's been an extremely two hot days of testing for me and the guys in the garage. It's not so much a problem when I am driving because the wind cools you down – but it's hard when you're in the garage as the heat is unbearable, so the guys did an outstanding job in these conditions. We don't find this kind of heat everywhere we go, but it's good to test in extreme conditions because they give us a chance to learn things particularly on cooling, tyre wear and degradation. Besides this, we mainly concentrated here on tyre testing for next week's French Grand Prix."

Best lap time: 1m19.242s
Total laps: 88
Total distance: 389.664kms

"It was a long hot day in the car today. I tried to work on long runs in the morning to test the tyres for Magny-Cours, but my engine needed to be changed out and therefore I had to do them in the afternoon. Other than that, I did some general set-up work. I am really starting to get a clear understanding of the car now. Everything is slowly getting better– the tyres, the chassis, the set-up. Overall, the team is still working hard to work on the reliability of the car but I am sure that we will be able to end the season on a high note. It just takes patience."

"Today did not run as smoothly as yesterday because we had to change out engines on both cars. We were running pretty hard and working on specific test items, so these changes were expected, yet we lost some time during the day. Nevertheless, we were able to complete the preparations for Magny-Cours and made our tyre choice based on the data from today and yesterday. In two weeks time we test here again in Jerez and we will only be concentrating on tyres for the coming races, as this will be the last test before the summer break."