Saturday: Toyota pulls out all the stops and aims for its first victory

During the winter testing, Toyota had warned: Our goal will be to win our first Grand Prix. The team trained here in Bahrain this winter, and the efforts finally seem to be paying off. Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock will start from the front row tomorrow. Trulli thus marks the Japanese manufacturer’s third pole position, and the first in 2009.

The hopes are filled with victories, even a surprise double, as achieved earlier in the year by Red Bull and Brawn GP. The team is on the right track, and the motivation is high. However, they will have to deal with various parameters of varying degrees. Reliability, firstly, which was lacking this morning on Glock’s TF109. Then the performance of the tires, which are very different depending on the weather conditions and the heat during the race. Strategy will also be the key to success: the team is light on fuel but stands by its choice.

Jarno Trulli – 9th and 1st:

« What a joy to be on pole again! The weekend is off to a great start and it’s fantastic to start in front tomorrow. The day wasn’t as easy as yesterday because I had some brake issues during practice this morning. This will be a bit of a concern for us during the race, but we will work on it tonight… »

« I am confident for tomorrow because our race pace is often good and the tires seem to be working quite well. »

« The first three races haven’t really gone as I wanted and I hope things will change here. We tested the car on this circuit over the winter and in general, it suited the TF109 well. Having both cars in front shows that we did a good job. I would like to dedicate this pole to the whole team who works very well and especially to the people from Abruzzo, victims of a terrible earthquake this month… »

Timo Glock – 1st and 2nd:

« It’s amazing to have secured a double in qualifying today. We had a problem this morning and yesterday, we made sure to fix the issue for the qualifiers. I was fast this morning, and it was just this electronic issue to resolve. »

The wind changed a bit during the qualifications, and I had to adapt to the tires in Q1. Then in Q2 and Q3, I was quite comfortable with the car, but I couldn’t beat Jarno [Trulli] due to some mistakes in turn 8. The engineers did a really great job!

Pascal Vasselon – Head of Chassis:

We really appreciate the results obtained today. We have been competitive since the beginning of the weekend and we were aiming for pole position. Everything went as planned, even better, because the gap with the cars behind is larger than we thought. Our two drivers did a good job and from the first lap, we saw that the pace was good. We just had to manage it to succeed in Q3.

« The race tomorrow is expected to be very exciting because of the tires. Here, the softs and hards are very different in terms of performance. The gaps are large, which leaves a lot of room for strategic choices. We saw yesterday that our pace was good both on a single lap and on a long stint, and apart from the electronic problem on Glock’s car, we are hopeful for tomorrow. Congratulations to the engineers and mechanics. »