Testing Begins For Toyota!

By Luke Marc Carlile-Stanton
November 29 2006

Testing for the Toyota Formula 1 Team today began with French Veteran Olivier Panis and young Japanese star Kamui Kobayashi on track for the team.

Olivier Finished in 5th place in a time of 1.17.643 and Kamui not suprisingly finished 17th and last on his F1 debut with a time of 1.20.731 as the team began it's preperations for the 2007 Season.

Race drivers Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher will join the team tommorow for their first tests of the winter period.

Toyota's first day was today but testing began yesterday and for the second day in a row Ferrari driver Felipe Massa began Ferrari's post-Schumacher age going fastest once again for the Red Scuderia with a time of 1.16.406. Nick Heidfeld in the BMW-Sauber was Massa's closest challenger but was still adrift in a time of 1.17.159 with Ferrari test driver and ex-Minardi racer Luca Badoer rounding out the top three.

Pedro De La Rosa lost the second Mclaren seat to British rookie and 2006 GP2 Champion Lewis Hamilton but De La Rosa finished 4th with Hamilton 6th, Olivier splitting the two Mclaren stars. Mclaren will be hoping to get World Champion Fernando Alonso testing for the team before the end of the year but the Spanish super-star is still locked into his Renault contract. But tommorow Mclaren will have another double World Champion on track with former number 1 driver Mika Hakkinen on track for the team.

Mark Webber completed his second day as a Red Bull driver in a creditable 8th position beating Britain's and new-team mate David Coulthard who was 11th. Champions Renault had two drivers on track with official test driver Nelson Piquet JR and Fernando Alonso's replacement in the race team Heikki Kovalinen taking up the driving duties. They were 9th and 12th respectivley. New Super Aguri race driver Anthony Davidson was testing for the team in a 2006-Honda RA106 and finished an impressive 11th.

As for the rest, Robert Kubica was 13th for BMW-Sauber, Williams' Alex Wurz was 14th ahead of the two Toro Rosso drivers of Scott Speed and Tonio Liuzzi.

Pos. Driver   Team    Time 
1 F. Massa  Ferrari  01:16.406
2 N. Heidfeld  BMW-Sauber 01:17.159 
3 L. Badoer  Ferrari  01:17.447
4 P. de la Rosa  McLaren  01:17.584 
5 O. Panis  Toyota  01:17.643
6 L. Hamilton  McLaren  01:17.748
7 R. Barrichello  Honda  01:17.922
8 M. Webber  Red Bull  01:18.249
9 N. Piquet jr.  Renault  01:18.312
10 A. Davidson  Super Aguri  01:18.374
11 D. Coulthard  Red Bull  01:18.526
12 H. Kovalainen  Renault  01:18.757
13 R. Kubica  BMW-Sauber 01:18.778
14 A. Wurz  Williams  01:18.876
15 S. Speed  Scuderia Toro Rosso  01:19.114
16 V. Liuzzi  Scuderia Toro Rosso  01:19.277 
17 K. Kobayashi  Toyota  01:20.731