Problems for both Toyota cars

Panasonic Toyota Racing took to the track for day two of its three-day test at the Circuito Permanente de Jerez in Spain today looking to make more progress on the set-up options on the TF107, as well as continuing with systems checks and practicing launches.

Ralf Schumacher was back behind the wheel, joined by Jarno Trulli who got his first taste of the TF107 around Jerez on a sunny, mainly dry day. Both drivers tried out different set-ups and suspension options during a busy morning which saw the pair clock up plenty of laps. The afternoon started differently though when Schumacher’s car stopped on track, causing a red flag while Trulli’s needed a small repair which gave him an extended lunch break. Both TF107s were back on track late in the afternoon after a rain shower, gathering yet more information for the team to work on before the final day of the test tomorrow.

Ralf Schumacher - Chassis TF107/701
Best Lap Time: 1min 20.604s
Position: 9th
Total laps: 59
Total distance: 261.2km
“Today we continued the work we did yesterday, trying different set-ups and learning more about the new car. This morning we tried several different things to see how they affect the balance of the car and that should help us understand the set-up better. It was a bit difficult for me in the afternoon because I did not run very much due to the repairs on my car. Overall, we are definitely making progress but we still have work to do before the start of the season.”

Jarno Trulli - Chassis TF107/703
Best Lap Time: 1min 20.898s
Position: 15th
Total laps: 80
Total distance: 354.2km
“Today was difficult for me because we had a few small issues, so the lap times did not reflect the car’s potential. However, we worked hard and tried to manage as many miles as possible to check the reliability of the car. That went reasonably well as I did a lot of laps without any serious trouble. I hope to have a better day tomorrow.”

Gerd Pfeiffer, Test Team Manager “We had a productive morning and both Ralf and Jarno put in a lot of laps which gave us plenty of data. Now we will study all that information and try to improve the set-up of the car. We were not able to do as many laps in the afternoon after Ralf suffered a gearshift problem soon after lunch which needed quite a long time to fix. Jarno was able to do more laps and that gave us the chance to test the car on some longer runs, although he lost a bit of time when a small repair was needed in the fuel tank.”