Thursday saw Panasonic Toyota Racing complete its last day of the important final test before Formula One heads east for the Asian double-header in Japan and China. Franck Montagny began the Cologne based squad’s program on Tuesday, with Ralf Schumacher taking over on the second day but for the final day, Jarno Trulli took over the driving.

The weather was once again warm and sunny and Jarno got through a lot of work, focusing in particular on aerodynamic and mechanical set-up. Good progress was made in the morning to fine-tune the package but strong winds intervened early in the afternoon which limited set-up work.

“It was a good day without many interruptions,” Jarno said. “We worked on both aerodynamic and mechanical set-up in the morning, found some good solutions and had a productive test up until lunch time. But then the wind came up in the afternoon and we had to change the focus to items where consistent track conditions were not so important. But we have gathered enough information to be able to study the results and hopefully make a step for the final three races.”

With this test over, the team will work on the information gained before practice starts for the Japanese Grand Prix at Fuji Speedway next week.

“This morning, Jarno carried on the programme Ralf had started yesterday and by midday had made strong progress and was happy with the car handling and balance,” added Gerd Pfeiffer, Test Team Manager. “But then, unfortunately, some strong winds blew up and that made conditions more unpredictable and we could no longer carry out meaningful comparison testing. We therefore switched emphasis for the final part of the afternoon. Overall we have had three solid days and collected a lot of data.”