Bahrain Grand Prix - Preview
BAHRAIN AGAIN
Panasonic Toyota Racing heads to the Bahrain Grand Prix full
of optimism after Jarno Trulli's impressive fourth place in
Malaysia confirmed the significant step forward taken by the
team over the winter. The Bahrain International Circuit hosts
a Grand Prix for the fifth time and the Toyota team is well
prepared, having spent six days in February testing on the
5.412km desert track, which features a combination of long
straights and tight corners. Over the course of over 900 laps,
Jarno, Timo Glock and Kamui Kobayashi worked on the set-up
of the TF108 and showed the potential which has now been translated
into encouraging qualifying and race pace. Once again, the
team expects both cars to qualify in the top 10 and the ultimate
target for race day is to improve on Jarno's seventh place
in 2007 by achieving a double points finish.
Jarno Trulli (Car 11): "The main topic
in Bahrain is obviously braking because there is a lot of
hard braking at the end of the long straights and to have
a competitive car you need good braking stability. With the
high temperatures as well, the brakes are really under stress.
Top speed is also very important at this track because of
the long straights and our challenge on Friday will be to
find a set-up which gives high top speed and also suitable
downforce for the corners. I had a fantastic result in Malaysia,
which was great for the whole team, so we are all very motivated
and looking forward to the next race. It will not be easy
to repeat the result we had in Malaysia; we will need another
perfect weekend, but we have shown that the new car is a big
improvement and we are able to challenge for the top six.
We had a productive test in Bahrain in February so I expect
to be competitive and score more points."
Timo Glock (Car 12): "It is very disappointing
that I have not finished a race yet for Toyota but I hope
that will change in Bahrain. The accident in Malaysia was
unfortunate and it stopped me fighting for points, which I
am sure I could have done. However, I prefer to look forward
and I am still positive, especially after qualifying in the
top 10 for both races so far. The test in Bahrain last month
went well and the information we got from that should help
us a bit this weekend, even if the temperature seems likely
to be quite a bit hotter than when we were last there. The
car has also improved quite a bit since that test but there
is still work to do to adjust it to my driving style. Obviously
my first target is to finish the race after my bad luck in
the first two races but I think I can again reach Q3 and hopefully
finish in the top eight for the first time with Toyota."
Pascal Vasselon - Senior General Manager Chassis:
"After Jarno's great result in Malaysia we are
all looking forward to the Bahrain Grand Prix withcautious
optimism.We knowbetter what to expect this weekend because
we tested in Bahrain over the winter. I was very pleased with
the progress we madethere; the track isan interesting combination
of slow-speed traction and high-speed corners, so we were
able to a lot of good work on set-up. We did a lot of lapsfor
reliability assessment and in our race simulation we looked
reasonably competitive considering that our race one package
was not available at that time. What was particularly satisfying
about our pace in Malaysia was that our level of competitiveness
was in line with our expectations after pre-season testing
and I expect us to build on this. The result in Malaysia gave
the whole team a lift and we expect another strong result
this weekend."
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