Europe: Converting 4th and 8th into Podiums?

By Karl King
May 28 2005

AS 'Quick Nick' scores his first-ever pole position, Jarno Trulli is the fastest Toyota driver. Trulli put in a storming lap after going out quite early in the session after a disappointing race at Monte Carlo, and ended up 4th.

"That was a good lap so I'm very happy," said Trulli. "I pushed as hard as I could, made no errors and got everything out of the car. I put in some work yesterday and today on the balance of the car, and it felt very good during qualifying. We are also confident with our strategy for the race, so now I hope to be able to keep that form going and do a good race. It's good to have so much sun and hot weather here at the Nürburgring. The weather here is often a big factor in the race and while there could be thunderstorms we hope it stays good. It's great to have so many of the team here supporting us and it would be wonderful to get a good result so we can dedicate it to the whole team."

In the all-new qualifying, Schumacher overcame his understeer problems to claim 8th on the grid. With all the team making an apperance over the weekend, hopefully the drivers will be able to convert their positions into a podium or even a win!

"We would have liked to have been a bit further forward but I had quite a bit of understeer and low grip generally, so that's why the lap time slipped away from me," said Ralf. "I have been struggling all weekend to find a good balance. But it worked well on Jarno's car so we'll have to look at the data overnight and see the difference. Of course every race is important but with so many fans, team members and people from the factory here we'll do our best to convert this into a good result tomorrow. We'll have to see what the weather does, but we'll certainly be aiming for a good points finish and if possible the podium."

With Ralf desperate for his first Toyota-backed podium, Dieter Gass comments "I think we can be very pleased with the qualifying today. Jarno did another very good lap and Ralf is in a good position too. Ralf reported too much understeer, so overnight we'll look at the data to understand why. But other than that we had no problems. I think we have made the proper tyre choice for the race. That means we can look forward to tomorrow afternoon. We are confident about our race strategy so we'll see how it pans out. Hopefully we can bring a good result home for all the supporters who will be here to cheer us on."