Jerez Test – Day 3
Location: Circuito Permanente de Jerez, Spain
Drivers: Timo Glock, Jarno Trulli
Track length: 4.428km
AND SO, THE END IS NEAR
Panasonic Toyota Racing welcomed Jarno Trulli back into action
at Jerez today for the penultimate testing day of 2008. Jarno
joined Timo Glock on another warm and sunny Spanish day, taking
over from Kamui Kobayashi. Jarno resumed the programme Kamui
started, focusing on developing the new rear end and working
with the 2008 standard ECU for the first time. The team’s
strong reliability record in testing means it is approaching
the final day with the 30,000km annual limit getting close
so Timo’s programme was always scheduled to be shorter
than Jarno’s. A hydraulic problem in the morning gave
Timo an unscheduled break but he had the chance to test slick
Bridgestone Potenza tyres in the afternoon, as well as continuing
his set-up work. A string of red flags late in the afternoon
disrupted proceedings but both drivers will return tomorrow
to bring the curtain down on 2008.
Timo Glock - Chassis TF107/03
Best Lap Time: 1min 19.687s
Position: 5th
Total laps: 40
Total distance: 177.12km
Jarno Trulli - Chassis TF107/06
Best Lap Time: 1min 20.775s
Position: 14th
Total laps: 99
Total distance: 438.372km
“It was a positive day and it was good to be back in
the car. We ran through all our planned programme running
with the 2008 ECU and rear end of the car. This was the first
time I have driven with the 2008 standard ECU but of course
I have a lot of experience of driving without traction control.
The main task was to put in a lot of mileage which have successfully
done today. We concentrated on finding new things with the
set-up and improving the general ECU settings. All in all
it was quite a good day.”
Pascal Vasselon, Senior General Manager Chassis
“Again we completed a lot of work today, although Timo
did suffer a delay in the morning while a hydraulic issue
was repaired. It was really interesting to run the slick tyres
on Timo’s car and we got a lot of information which
will help us to adjust to the change in 2009. The difference
between slicks and the current grooved tyres is quite big
and the car behaves differently. Obviously there is more grip
without the grooves and lap times are faster, which we expected,
but it was interesting to note that the car balance and handling
stays good with the slick tyres when we thought there could
be difficulties. Jarno put in a hard day’s work and
we have made more progress with the 2008 ECU so now we look
forward to concluding the year’s testing tomorrow.”
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