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Panasonic Toyota Racing

Italian Grand Prix - Free Practice Round-Up

Motorsport
Today's Weather: Wet with heavy thunderstorms and torrential rain in the morning. A brighter afternoon session led to the track drying out later on. Air 19-25°C, track 14-30°C
Toyota's Best Italian GP qualifying: 6th Jarno Trulli 2005
Toyota's Best Italian GP race result: 5th Jarno Trulli 2005
Take Note: Panasonic Toyota Racing's third driver Kamui Kobayashi will celebrate his 22nd birthday tomorrow by competing in the GP2 race here at Monza

Timo Glock (Car 12, Chassis TF108-06)
Summary: Like everyone, he had limited running in the wet morning before a fuller afternoon's work
P1 4th Best Lap Time: 1m 36.800s (+3.958s) Laps: 13
P2 17th Best Lap Time: 1m 25.397s (+1.536s) Laps: 28

"It was difficult today. In the wet conditions this morning we were okay but in the dry the car just is not working the tyre hard enough. So the car is out of the right set-up window to have confidence. It feels different from corner to corner and it is not easy to feel what it is doing. The conditions were tricky in Spa last week and they are likely to be similar here. That will make it another difficult weekend for us because we have struggled in cooler conditions, particularly with hard tyres and low downforce. Still, I have never raced here in wet conditions before so that could be quite interesting for us."

Jarno Trulli (Car 11, Chassis TF108-05)
Summary: Disrupted morning session and later struggled to make progress in variable track conditions
P1 8th Best Lap Time: 1m 37.214s (+4.372s) Laps: 13
P2 19th Best Lap Time: 1m 25.753s (+1.892s) Laps: 29
"That was not a good Friday because the track was always changing and we didn't learn much out of it. In general we have a competitive car but we had a difficult weekend in Spa and this could be another hard race. The cool conditions make warming up the tyres a problem and so far this year we have been more competitive at high downforce levels than at low downforce. So it's not the best type of circuit for us but we will obviously push for the best result we can. For sure this is not the ideal place to have a wet race but obviously we will have to deal with it. We just hope we can improve over the next two days."

Dieter Gass, Chief Engineer Race and Test
"Today was an unfortunate day for us. After the problems we encountered in last week's race in Spa we came here with an interesting programme. But because of the weather we weren't really able to do any significant work on that. The circuit took a long time to dry and we only really had three runs in stable conditions late on. So it will be very hard to draw any conclusions. Both drivers were struggling for grip, which is normal on a completely green track here. Having to use the harder tyre compounds doesn't help the situation, especially for us, but we've got to get on with it. The forecast is for rain for the rest of the weekend and we were performing better here in the wet conditions this morning so we will do our best to bring a competitive package together."

Panasonic Toyota Racing, featuring... Trulli Passionate: Where it all began for Jarno
Jarno Trulli is at home in Italy for this weekend's race in Monza, but it is 600km south in Pescara where his passion for motorsport began. The city hosted the longest track ever to hold a World Championship Grand Prix when 200,000 fans watched Stirling Moss win the 1957 Pescara Grand Prix on an epic 25.8km street circuit. "The background of this region in motorsport is quite strong," says Jarno. "Back in the 1950s, Enzo Ferrari, Luigi Villoresi, Juan Manuel Fangio and many others raced in Pescara."
As a youngster Jarno travelled by van with his father Enzo and mechanic Dino La Cioppa to kart tracks in faraway cities like Parma, Pomposa, or Jeselo, meaning a drive back through the night. Dino says: "Jarno was passionate about it from the beginning and he was always trying to improve. He went to the limit of perfection for a boy of his age. He was only eight or nine years old but he drove like he was 14 or 15."
From those early days of karting success in his homeland, Jarno went on to win karting world titles before graduating to single-seaters. The German F3 crown followed and a long career in F1 beckoned.
For the full feature, in text or video format, please visit the broadcast room of www.toyota-f1-world.com.