Toyota Bahrain test notes 2009-02-19

Driver: Timo Glock
Track length: 5.412km

SAND HITCH

Panasonic Toyota Racing today finished off its fortnight of testing in Bahrain with the last day of running at the Sakhir circuit. Despite further good weather it was a difficult day for Timo Glock, who continued his work on set-up in the TF109. After a week of near-perfect reliability the test was disrupted early on by a problem with the hydraulics system. It has nonetheless been a positive week and the team has racked up a lot of mileage to make up for the time lost to last week's sandstorm. Toyota is next scheduled to return to the track at the test in Jerez, Spain, starting on March 1.

Timo Glock - Chassis TF109-01
Best lap time: 1min 32.445s
Position: 3rd out of 3
Total laps: 65

"It was a pity that our last day of work here was disrupted but this has still been a very successful test for us. Today we missed much of the day's action due to a hydraulics problem so it was a shame to lose running time. But the mechanics did a good job and when we made it onto the track we put in some useful work. Overall we have put a lot of miles on the TF109 this week. We've made good progress with set-up and I'm confident that this can continue."

Pascal Vasselon, Senior General Manager Chassis

"This was a difficult end to what has otherwise been an excellent week's work. This morning we suffered from hydraulic oil contamination and it took time to find out which component was causing the problem. Nonetheless this test has gone extremely efficiently. The weather has been good despite the wind and the sand and we have been able to use the full mileage on the parts that we brought to Bahrain. That shows we have good reliability and we can approach the start of the season with a very good database. We are starting to get a clear idea of what these new regulations mean for set-up and the performance has been promising. So we are pleased with how these two weeks have gone."

-credit: toyota