Formula 1

Chinese GP: Toyota Friday practice notes

Panasonic Toyota Racing today kicked off its preparations for the Chinese Grand Prix with a busy day of work at the Shanghai International Circuit. The two Friday practice sessions took place in warm conditions but under cloudy skies. The weather ...

Published: Oct 5, 2007, 3:52 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Panasonic Toyota Racing today kicked off its preparations for the Chinese Grand Prix with a busy day of work at the Shanghai International Circuit. The two Friday practice sessions took place in warm conditions but under cloudy skies. The weather could yet play a part in the action as rain is forecast for later in the weekend.

Toyota's race drivers Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli both enjoyed a clear day of running. The team changed the car's floor over the lunch break with positive results. Jarno ended the afternoon session with the 5th fastest time while Ralf, competing in his penultimate race for Toyota, was 7th. The engineers will now look to build on this solid start as they prepare for qualifying and Sunday's race.

Jarno Trulli:

"Today went smoothly and we got through our usual programme of tyre testing and set-up. Our long run pace was consistent but we still have some problems with balance. So we need to work a little more on the data in order to find more grip and speed. We've had a poor run of form but now we must forget everything and concentrate on this weekend. It's frustrating not to have scored points for such a long time so that remains the aim for this weekend and we will continue to push as hard as possible."

Ralf Schumacher:

"The sessions went without any problems and we were able to test everything that we had planned. The track conditions were quite slippery but overall I am happy with our progress. This is my second last race for Toyota but that does not mean that my motivation is any way affected. It's been a hard year but the whole team remains focused on the job in hand. We will continue to push until the end of the season. I just want to finish off the last two races with as much success as possible and hopefully bring home the best possible result."

Dieter Gass -- Chief Engineer Race and Test

"That was a positive day for us. In the afternoon session we tried out a different floor which completely changed the car behaviour in the direction that we wanted. It's not a new floor design but it has a different characteristic that suits this circuit better. So we are pleased that the switch paid off. We have good pace on the long runs as well."

"Jarno put in a consistent long run and Ralf was also consistent although that was masked on the timesheets by traffic. We made it through our programme without any issues and the tyres behaved much as expected, with not a particularly large difference between them. So we are in good shape and given this form it is just a pity that we have a wet forecast for Sunday."

Jarno Trulli
Chassis: TF107/04
First Session: 7th, 30 laps, 1m 38.208s (+1.184s)
Second Session: 5th, 36 laps, 1m 37.151s (+0.544s)

Ralf Schumacher
Chassis: TF107/05
First Session: 12th, 23 laps, 1m 38.661s (+1.637s)
Second Session: 7th, 32 laps, 1m 37.524s (+0.917s)

-credit: toyota

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Raikkonen leads in Chinese GP first practice

Next article Chinese GP: Friday press conference

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Did Max Verstappen already know the impact of Red Bull’s big upgrade when he signed his new deal?

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Singapore GP

30 min

Did Max Verstappen already know the impact of Red Bull’s big upgrade when he signed his new deal?

WEC: Barcelona 6 Hours schedule and TV times

WEC

WEC WEC

Barcelona

1 h

WEC: Barcelona 6 Hours schedule and TV times

Brennan Poole joins Jordan Anderson Racing for 2027 NASCAR O'Reilly season

NASCAR O'Reilly

NOAP NASCAR O'Reilly

Phoenix II

3 h

Brennan Poole joins Jordan Anderson Racing for 2027 NASCAR O'Reilly season

Kaden Honeycutt wins incident-free Phoenix NASCAR Truck race, extends points lead

NASCAR Truck

NSTR NASCAR Truck

Phoenix

7 h

Kaden Honeycutt wins incident-free Phoenix NASCAR Truck race, extends points lead

Feature

Discover prime content

Lights, Camara, action: How Haas picked F1's latest rookie for 2027

Formula 1

Singapore GP

By Jake Boxall-Legge

Lights, Camara, action: How Haas picked F1's latest rookie for 2027

Employing team orders can simply be a matter of common sense

Formula 1

By Kevin Turner

Employing team orders can simply be a matter of common sense

Why Christian Horner sees history repeating itself for Adrian Newey at Aston Martin

Formula 1

Singapore GP

By Ronald Vording

Why Christian Horner sees history repeating itself for Adrian Newey at Aston Martin

Laurent Mekies under the microscope: How different is his leadership at Red Bull from Christian Horner?

Formula 1

Singapore GP

By Ronald Vording

Laurent Mekies under the microscope: How different is his leadership at Red Bull from Christian Horner?

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts