Strong winds intervenes final test day for Toyota at Jerez

Today saw Panasonic Toyota Racing complete it last day of the important final test before Formula 1 heads east for the Asian double-header in Japan and China. Franck Montagny began Panasonic Toyota Racing’s programme on Tuesday, with Ralf Schumacher taking over on the second day but for the final day, Jarno Trulli took over the driving.

The weather was once again warm and sunny and Jarno got through a lot of work, focusing in particular on aerodynamic and mechanical set-up. Good progress was made in the morning to fine-tune the package but strong winds intervened early in the afternoon which limited set-up work. With this test over, the team will work on the information gained before practice starts for the Japanese Grand Prix at Fuji Speedway next week.

Jarno Trulli - Chassis TF107/06
Best Lap Time: 1min 21.521s
Position: 7th
Total laps: 77 Total distance: 340.571km
“It was a good day without many interruptions. We worked on both aerodynamic and mechanical set-up in the morning, found some good solutions and had a productive test up until lunch time. But then the wind came up in the afternoon and we had to change the focus to items where consistent track conditions were not so important. But we have gathered enough information to be able to study the results and hopefully make a step for the final three races.”

Gerd Pfeiffer, Test Team Manager “This morning, Jarno carried on the programme Ralf had started yesterday and by midday had made strong progress and was happy with the car handling and balance. But then, unfortunately, some strong winds blew up and that made conditions more unpredictable and we could no longer carry out meaningful comparison testing. We therefore switched emphasis for the final part of the afternoon. Overall we have had three solid days and collected a lot of data.”