Jerez Day 2: A Happy Ending

With just eight days to go before the first practice sessions at Albert Park in Melbourne, Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli finalised preparations for the Australian Grand Prix today. On a dry day with air temperatures reaching a high of 20°C, the team again tried out its race-one aerodynamic package and worked on optimising set-ups before the long trip Down Under. Ralf’s day was interrupted when he struck a bird but he was able to drive back to the pits where repairs were made. Neither driver suffered any technical problems as the team finished a long pre-season of testing on a very

Jarno Trulli - Chassis TF107/04
Best Lap Time: 1min 18.589s
Position: 1st
Total laps: 123
Total distance: 544.6kms

“It has been two useful days and we have checked some things on the car and pushed even further with car performance. We tried different things on the set-up with the latest aero package and they seemed to go well. I have to say the last two days have been good in terms of reliability so I am more confident now going to Melbourne.”

Dieter Gass - Chief Engineer Race and Test

“We had a very successful final preparation day for Melbourne. In perfect conditions throughout the whole day, we were concentrating again on fine-tuning the car set-up around our race one aero package and the tyres which we will use in Melbourne. Both drivers put in some competitive lap times and had no technical issues at all during the day. Ralf was a little bit unlucky when he hit a bird with the front left suspension, which had to be replaced for safety reasons as a consequence. This obviously caused us to lose some valuable running time. We are now more confidently heading towards Melbourne, where our target is to carry over the form we showed during our final two testing days.”