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Panasonic Toyota Racing
Australian Grand Prix - Qualifying Round-Up
3rd Practice: 2nd, 1m 25.811s (+0.003s), 19 laps 1st Qualifying: 14th, 1m 26.194s (+1.188s), 7 laps 2nd Qualifying: 7th, 1m 25.265s (+0.482s), 6 laps 3rd Qualifying: 8th, 1m 27.127s (+0.925s), 7 laps
Timo Glock (Car 10, Chassis TF109-03)
3rd Practice: 8th, 1m 26.410s (+0.602s), 25 laps 1st Qualifying: 4th, 1m 25.499s (+0.493s), 7 laps 2nd Qualifying: 8th, 1m 25.281s (+0.498s), 6 laps 3rd Qualifying: 6th, 1m 26.975s (+0.773s), 6 laps
Panasonic Toyota Racing will have two cars in the top 10 when the Australian Grand Prix kicks off the 2009 Formula 1 season. On another clear, sunny day at Albert Park in Melbourne, with track temperatures of 29-33°C and air temperatures of 24-25°C, Timo Glock claimed sixth place on the grid with Jarno Trulli two places further back in eighth. With medium and super soft Bridgestone Potenza compounds on offer, both drivers used the softer option to progress through Q1 and Q2 as the whole grid was able to compare outright performance for the first time with the 2009-specification cars. Q3, with all cars carrying the amount of fuel they will start the race with, was predictably tense and the two Toyotas used the super soft tyres in the final seconds to set their fastest times.
Jarno Trulli
"That was a really hard qualifying for me. I expected a lot more from today so I am disappointed. Of course I will fight as hard as I can in the race but I don't know what to expect because the car felt different in qualifying compared to final practice. I don't know why but the tyres just would not warm up as expected and I was sliding around quite a bit. On top of that I had some issues with the brakes so it was really difficult for me."
Timo Glock
"We struggled a bit in second and third practice to find the right balance but we worked hard to find a solution and we did some set-up work which got the car into the right set-up window. I think with a bit more fine-tuning maybe we could have been further up the grid - we were only a tenth behind the top three so it could have been better but I am quite positive about the result. The car feels pretty good now and we are clearly not far away so let's see how it goes tomorrow in terms of strategy. I am pretty happy and reasonably confident."
Pascal Vasselon - Senior General Manager Chassis "Overall the result is quite disappointing because we were hoping for more from qualifying today. We expected to be further up the grid but of course strategy plays a part in Q3 so we cannot forget that factor. It was easy to predict which tyres to use in qualifying because the super soft compound was clearly preferable but for the race it is a different matter. Tyre choice is a bigger challenge for the race and we have time now to look at the situation."
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