At the end of the season opening Australian Grand Prix, Jarno Trulli thought his hard day’s work had paid off with a podium finish and six very valuable world championship points. After starting from pitlane due to a technical infringement, the result was extremely satisfying.

Sadly it didn’t last long and he was demoted by twenty five seconds for an infringement under the safety car, sending him back to twelfth place and out of the points. The following interview took palce before he was aware of the demotion…

Jarno, in some respects starting from the pit lane was the best place to start, given what happened at the first corner.

Well, after yesterday’s disappointment this was a great day, especially for my team. I started from the pit and I was lucky enough to get away from the first corner accident. From that time on I was just pushing, pushing, pushing really hard because the car was good. This is a great result and especially I would like to thank my Panasonic Toyota team because they have made a lot of effort and this result is entirely down to them as they have done a god job over the winter time to give me a fantastic car, so after yesterday we bounced back today to show that we are doing things the right way.

Jarno, a brilliant race from the pit lane but your race really came alive in those closing stages when on lap 56 Robert Kubica attacked Sebastian Vettel with Vettel on the soft tyre and Robert on the harder tyre and I think you going through the debris after this.

Well, there have been a lot of things going on during this race. Mainly I was trying to push as hard as possible in order to catch up. I made a lot of overtaking during the whole race, at the beginning of the session as well as in the middle and in the end. I didn’t know what was going on as my only target was to push as hard as possible to finish as high as possible and somehow I was lucky but once again I have to thank the team as we had a fantastic car, so I could do it.

Jarno, I get the feeling that you’re just a little frustrated. Maybe there’s the thought of what could have been if you hadn’t started from the pit lane?

Well, many things happened this weekend, plenty of emotion, some highs, some lows, so it’s difficult to say if you’re happy or not. At the moment, I’m not completely happy with myself because I could have done well, but on the other hand if you look at the result we have all done a great job after the big disappointment of yesterday, we proved that our car has nothing to do in terms of competitiveness regarding the little details which we have been disqualified for. On the other hand, qualifying yesterday went pretty badly. It was the only time when the car felt pretty bad and I don’t know why. On top of that I’ve been struggling all weekend with brakes, so all I had to do today was completely change the brakes to a different material, different things, something I never ran with this weekend. With all the experience I have, I didn’t think about it, I just went flat out, out of the pit lane. It was lacking at some stages of the race, at the beginning, because I gained a couple of positions because of crashes. On the other hand, I don’t know if the TV showed them but I did some great moves and overtaking at the beginning of the race, in the middle of the race as well as at the end of the race. So I was a little bit unlucky because at one stage I fell behind Fisichella who was massively slower than me, something like one and a half seconds and I spent a lot of time, a lot of laps behind him which cost me so much track time. So I don’t know if I could have finished higher but anyway, all I want to say is thanks to the team, because the Panasonic Toyota team has done a great job over the winter and especially after yesterday’s disappointment, it’s a great way to hit back.

Jarno, sure it’s very early, but did today’s performance show you that Toyota can fight for the championship?

It’s difficult to say because obviously I haven’t been close enough to these guys who at the moment look like they are the men to beat. All I can say is that since this winter time we were feeling pretty good, since the first time I tested the car I gave a positive comment straight away. This result is a lot down to the team but I’m proud of what is happening, because I think I’ve been giving a lot in terms of experience, in terms of direction and straight away the first time I tested the car we were on our own, so we didn’t have any reference point, but straight away I said that for me it was a very good baseline. Now we’ve proved that the first time I can tell when something is right or wrong and the direction to take and naturally this makes me feel very happy because it means that I’m not only good at driving but I’m also good at giving the direction and leading the team in one way. So I’m getting what I want and the team is doing a good job with both Timo and me, the atmosphere is great, so it’s a big thanks to everyone because we have seen that the machine has a major impact on the results, no matter who is driving it, but it’s important to have a good car. Today’s result is just a great way, a great day to thank everyone and to show that Toyota is on the right direction, on the right path. Now, from being third to saying that we can fight for the championship is a bit too early to say.

Do you think that now you’ve driven in a race, that the new rules are helping overtaking or does it not change much?

Well, it helped make the race a little bit more fun, a bit more show and overtaking. The fact is that anyway, being late in the afternoon was really due to the shadows, so we had to be very careful where we were putting our wheels and on the other hand I don’t want to be pessimistic but I spent many laps behind Fisichella who was a second or a second and a half slower than me and I couldn’t overtake, and I really needed to overtake him, so I was really pushing and attacking but I couldn’t make it. Maybe it’s slightly better but definitely at the moment it didn’t change my race at all, but let’s wait and see. I would be more than happy if we had more chance to overtake, not just for us but the show for everyone.