Malaysian Grand Prix - Free Practice Round-Up
After its disappointing performance last week in Bahrain,
Panasonic Toyota Racing today began its quest for improvement
during free practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix. On a hot
but cloudy day at the Sepang circuit near Kuala Lumpur, Ralf
Schumacher and Jarno Trulli put in their first laps of what
promises to be a challenging weekend. Both drivers put in
more laps than usual for a Friday as Toyota seeks to learn
how to make the most of its new package. Ralf and Jarno completed
their programmes of tyre comparison and set-up work and will
now look to continue the learning process over the rest of
the weekend.
MALAY SCHOOL
Jarno Trulli worked hard to gain information to help Toyota
progress from last week's performance.
Jarno Trulli (Car 8, Chassis TF106/04)
First Session Classification: 12th, 8 laps completed
Lap Time: 1m38.837s (+3.891s)
Second Session Classification: 11th, 23 laps completed
Lap Time: 1m37.317s (+2.276s)
"We spent the two sessions trying to collect more data
on our new package. Our grip level is not yet there and although
we look slightly more competitive than in Bahrain we still
have work to do. Our challenge is to get the car and tyres
working together. For that we need to carry out a detailed
analysis, but of course there has been no chance to test since
Bahrain so we will have to continue that work this weekend.
I am sure we have not seen the true potential of our car yet.
We understand the problem but the solution is not straightforward.
We are obviously looking to have a better race than we had
in Bahrain but the important thing for us is to spend these
early race weekends getting to the root of the problem."
GETTING A GRIP
After the difficulties of Bahrain, Ralf Schumacher was happier
with his TF106 around the Sepang circuit.
Ralf Schumacher (Car 7, Chassis TF106/05)
First Session Classification: 9th, 9 laps completed
Lap Time: 1m37.826s (+2.880s)
Second Session Classification: 17th, 20 laps completed
Lap Time: 1m37.695s (+2.654s)
"Today we completed more running than usual because
we are still trying to find out how to make the most of our
package. We've been struggling for grip and the Bahrain weekend
showed us we still have a way to go. But today the car felt
much better and the grip level has increased quite a lot.
The traction and the tyres seem to be working better with
this track surface and the heat. I was caught in traffic on
my last run so we could have further improved our time. Our
aim this weekend has to be to collect information for future
races but we have already collected some useful data. So that's
an encouraging start."
THE DATA DAY
It was a hard day of preparation for Panasonic Toyota Racing
in preparation for Sunday's Malaysian GP.
Dieter Gass – Chief Engineer Race and Test
"Today we made a step forward from what we saw in Bahrain.
We've done a lot of work on the tyre and the set-up and we've
collected some good information, especially from the tyres.
For tomorrow we will try to improve the set-up of the cars.
We did more running than we normally do because we saved some
mileage last weekend which we can use here to get the maximum
information possible. Given all that, we have plenty of information
with which to make the tyre choice. It's still a bit early
to say how much the conditions here will affect our performance.
But given that we have struggled to get temperature into the
tyres the higher track temperature should help us."
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