Panis and Zonta testing at Jerez for Toyota

Before heading into the last race of the season in Brazil and the following winter break, Panasonic Toyota Racing travelled south to the Andalusian region of Spain for a two-day test at the Circuito Permanente de Jerez. Warm, sunny skies welcomed the team today with third driver Ricardo Zonta and test driver Olivier Panis putting in just over a combined 200 laps. Both drivers had successful days without any major issues and will return tomorrow for the second and final day of testing for the team.

"Today's running was really positive. We got a lot of laps in and were able to cover a lot of tyre test items. It is hard to say that the track here is comparable to that in Sao Paolo, especially because the circuit there has changed so much and the weather is unpredictable. But you can say that the traction is similar. Today I believe the track conditions here changed greatly between the morning and afternoon sessions. If we would have put new tyres on the car in the morning, I feel that we could have had a better lap time. Tomorrow we will continue this testing to see how the track and the tyres behave before we make a final decision."

"Quite honestly, today was an ordinary day for me. I spent the whole day collecting data and doing comparisons in order for the team to be able to analyze data they needed for the race strategy. The track conditions were okay, the car ran well and I look forward to working on the Brazil tyre programme tomorrow."

"The driver's programmes were quite straightforward. Ricardo worked on tyre comparisons, while Olivier spent the day collecting data that the engineers in the factory needed to analyze various items on the car. Overall, the cars worked well and we made it through the day and both programmes nicely. Tomorrow we will continue the tyre programme on both cars to make the choice for Brazil."