Panasonic Toyota Racing was back on track again today just five days after the European Grand Prix, with the first practice sessions at Spa-Francorchamps. The classic track, venue for this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix, is located just over an hour's drive from the team's technical centre in Cologne, Germany and the weekend started positively for the local team.

Spa is famed for changeable weather and that reputation was enhanced in first practice when clouds gathered and rain fell a few minutes in. By that time Jarno Trulli had already set a flying lap, unlike teammate Timo Glock. With no improvement in conditions, both drivers took to the track later in the session on wet Bridgestone Potenza tyres, gathering information about the TF109's handling in rain. By virtue of his early lap on a dry track, Jarno was fastest but Timo's only timed laps came in the wet, leaving him down the order.

Afternoon sun dried the track for second practice, allowing both drivers to concentrate on evaluating the revised front and rear wings which the team is using at Spa as part of its low-downforce aerodynamic package. In addition, comparison runs between the medium and soft tyres were carried out with Timo ending the day an impressive second fastest and Jarno also in the top eight.

"Whenever you come back to Spa it is a nice experience to do your first laps of the weekend and that was the case again today,” Timo said. “It's a great circuit and very satisfying for a driver, especially when you have a competitive car. It's hard to draw any conclusions from the wet session this morning but I am pleased to be second in the afternoon; that is very encouraging. The car felt pretty good and the lap times show that. Still, there are a couple of areas to improve so we will work on those before qualifying and try to find the perfect aerodynamic balance. I am happy with how things went today and I'm interested to see where we are tomorrow."