On Wednesday, Panasonic Toyota Racing returned to the track for the second day of the week’s test program at Jerez with Ralf Schumacher in the cockpit. The hot and sunny weather continued so all the teams at the circuit could take advantage of another full day of running.

The track temperatures above 50°C also made for a perfect way to prepare for the likely heat of Budapest, the next race on the Formula 1 calendar scheduled for August 6. Ralf completed his planned 73 laps in the course of a full day. He practised a different start procedure, carried out work on set-up and suspension and tested aero parts in preparation for the Hungarian GP.

“Today went quite well, we went through all the items we had planned, including plenty of set-up work,” he said. “We also did lots of practice starts because that is the area that we most need to improve. That went well and I’m quite happy with our progress. In the afternoon I did some long runs for further set-up comparisons and we completed our programme without problems. We’re working hard to improve the package and we hope that can continue. Our performance has clearly been stronger at recent races, including even last weekend’s difficult European Grand Prix. We missed out on a result there but now we will push for a better return next week in Hungary.”

The test concludes today with Jarno Trulli at the wheel.