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F1: Toyota “Better Than Expected,” Says Trulli
Written by: Adam Cooper
RACER Magazine   http://www.racer.com/speedtv
03/21/2007 - 07:00 PM
Melbourne, Australia
 
The Toyotas performed better than the drivers had been expecting in Melbourne. (LAT photo) ยป More Photos

Despite his troubled race in Australia Jarno Trulli acknowledges that the Toyota TF107 was more competitive than testing had indicated, while reliability appeared to be better after problems in the winter.

Against expectations both Toyotas qualified in the top 10, with Ralf Schumacher leading home his teammate as they finished in eighth and ninth places. Trulli had a frustrating afternoon and spent a lot of time in traffic, but sees some potential in the car.

"Overall, it was better than expected," he told SpeedTV.com. "We could definitely have done slightly better, especially with me. The start of the race was pretty bad with some engine controls or electronics which went wrong, so I lost a few positions. Only thanks to some good overtaking maneuvers, I made it back.

"Then the first stint of the race I was held up by Ralf, who was slower than me. That cost me quite a lot. I was very unlucky with Fisichella, he got right between Ralf and me when he came out of the pits, and this cost me my race, because he screwed me up with the strategy. Giancarlo was slow because he was heavy
on fuel, Ralf pulled away, and the people behind me with a different strategy just got me. And on top of that I also had a lot of brake problems, which really didn't make my race easy."



Catch up on the latest Formula 1 developments each month in RACER. Check out our look at how Kimi Raikkonen settled in at Ferrari over the winter in our April issue, on sale now!


Two years ago Trulli scored podiums in Malaysia and Bahrain, but last year the car was well off the pace as the team struggled to adapt to Bridgestones. The Italian is not sure what to expect this time.

"There is a lot of work to do anyway, because compared to the top teams, we are very far away, but nevertheless it's good to start inn this way after such a difficult time in winter testing. But don't forget that Melbourne is a track where we've always been competitive, so we'll see what happens in the next two races. I hope something new comes for the car."