German GP: Toyota Friday practice notes

Panasonic Toyota Racing made a solid start to its preparations for the German Grand Prix during today's two sessions of practice at Hockenheim. Third driver Ricardo Zonta had his usual busy day of action, putting in over 60 laps and setting the 5th fastest time in the second session.

Race drivers Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher both made it through their programmes without problems, ending up with the 9th and 11th fastest times respectively in the second session. Both drivers will be making use of an updated RVX-05 engine at this weekend's race, which could still be affected by the unpredictable weather.

HOCK AROUND THE CLOCK

After turning 31 years old last week, Jarno Trulli had a solid day of practice for Sunday's race. He put in a total of 37 laps of the track and recorded a time of 1m 16.411s, the 9th fastest of the second session.

Jarno Trulli:

"That was a normal Friday of tyre and set-up work and it's still too early to say how well we can perform here. The tyre choice is still open and could be affected by the weather so we'll have to analyse the data carefully tonight. The engine has a good step forward here which should help us to improve our pace and hopefully to score more points."

HEIM SWEET HEIM

Ralf Schumacher enjoyed a trouble-free day of groundwork for his home race at Hockenheim - a grand prix that he won in 2001 - finishing the second session in 11th place.

Ralf Schumacher:

"It's always nice to come to Hockenheim because I enjoy the atmosphere here. Today was a normal day of work on tyres and set-up in preparation for the rest of the weekend. We've been struggling a bit in the last few races, but the package still has the potential to make it to a good points finish so we'll try and do that again on Sunday."

MORNING RUSH HOUR

Toyota's third driver Ricardo Zonta had a busier morning than usual because of the threat of rain in the afternoon. In the end it did not materialise and he went on to record the 5th fastest time in the second session.

Ricardo Zonta:

"Because of the threat of rain for this afternoon we had to put in a more intense session of work than usual this morning, including a couple of medium-long runs. In the end we had enough time to put in our usual long runs anyway, but when I put on new tyres at the end to do a quick lap I hit traffic on the last sector so I could have gone quicker."

MORE POWER TO THE PEOPLE

Panasonic Toyota Racing has come to Hockenheim with a step forward on its RVX-05 engine. The team will look to reap the rewards over the rest of the weekend.

Luca Marmorini -- Technical Director Engine

"It was a positive session for us. All the work that we had planned was done without any major problems, so we've collected plenty of data for tomorrow. Because of the threat of rain we moved some more of our work to the first session but it held off for just long enough."

"So far we have had no serious issues with our new engine developments, so everything looks under control and we are happy. Now we have to analyse the data for Saturday and Sunday."

Jarno Trulli
Car 16, Chassis TF105/07
First Session Classification: 12th
14 laps completed
Lap Time: 1m 17.341s (+3.064s)
Second Session Classification: 9th
23 laps completed
Lap Time: 1m 16.411s (+2.438s)

Ralf Schumacher
Car 17, Chassis TF105/05
First Session Classification: 10th
14 laps completed
Lap Time: 1m 17.197s (+2.920s)
Second Session Classification: 11th
19 laps completed
Lap Time: 1m 16.575s (+2.602s)

Ricardo Zonta
Car 38, Chassis TF105/03
First Session Classification: 2nd
27 laps completed
Lap Time: 1m 14.893s (+0.616s)
Second Session Classification: 5th
34 laps completed
Lap Time: 1m 16.091s (+2.118s)

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