Saturday: Disappointment in the air for Toyota

Free practice sessions suggested better performances for the Toyota team. Unfortunately, fate decided otherwise as Timo Glock had a gearbox problem this morning which forced him to change the unit. Five places down on the starting grid for the German, who will start from the last row.

Jarno Trulli is still well placed as he is in 6th position, but he had to face tougher competition with Red Bull and Alonso or Hamilton who have a new diffuser.

Jarno Trulli – 2nd and 6th:

« It was a difficult qualification for me, and I’m a bit disappointed with this morning’s results because, after the session, I thought we had the pace to be at the front. Like in Australia, the grip level between the morning and afternoon is different. Something was missing, the car wasn’t great, and I had to push hard to get into Q3. However, I’m satisfied with my last lap and in the end, it’s the 6th place. Tomorrow should be a good race, and there might be rain to mix things up. »

Timo Glock – 20th and 19th (qualified 14th):

« This morning I had a gearbox problem after three or four laps during practice, and we lost a complete session. So I started with fewer places in qualifying. The car was different from yesterday, and it was already very difficult to drive in Q1. I couldn’t complete a full lap, and I knew it would be difficult to enter Q3 because the gaps were tight. On my last lap, I made a mistake. Because of the penalty, it means we will start from the last row. Now, we just have to hope for rain tomorrow. »

Pascal Vasselon – Deputy General Director of Chassis

« It is obviously a disappointing result, far from what we were doing in 2009. Timo had a gearbox problem this morning that we couldn’t fix. We were forced to change the unit for qualifying. So, he had an additional difficulty this afternoon. Of course, we will adjust our strategy for his position. »

« For Jarno, it’s better, but still far from expectations. The tires are the key factor of the weekend, particularly the management of the softest compound, which performs better than expected but remains problematic.