Paul Ricard 5/4/06 – Toyota 4th and 6th fastest

By Nick Sparkes
April 6 2006

Toyota returned to Europe to begin their three day test at Paul Ricard in preparation for the San Marino Grand Prix later this month. After their unexpected podium last weekend, the team continued to impress on the test track albeit without Mike Gascoyne.

With the day remaining a pleasant 20 degrees Celsius, Toyota along with Renault, McLaren, BMW Sauber and Red Bull Racing got a good days running, although the time sheets covered with test and reserve drivers.

Every time Heikki Kovalainen seems to exit the pit lane at a test track, the young Renault drive just can’t help but go fastest and today was no exception. Behind came Pedro de la Rosa in his McLaren a couple of tenths behind with Robert Kubica putting in another impressive test with his BMW-Sauber to finish in third.

For Toyota the test couldn’t had gone better. Whereas in pervious tests where the team have finished right down at the bottom, normally two seconds away from the top, today the team showed that their was nothing wrong with their TF106 chassis, ending up the day fourth with Ricardo Zonta and sixth for Olivier Panis, just over half a second behind the flying Renault. Toyota like most of the teams worked on tyres and set-up, and it seems the new Bridgestone’s are working a treat for Toyota.

Obviously, Ricardo was delighted with Toyota’s most successful test so far; "I am really happy with today's results. We worked on aerodynamic scans and tyre tests. From this, we learned a lot and showed that we had a good lap time, which is the best we have done at Paul Ricard. Therefore, in my opinion this was the best day of testing this year because we found some really positive results. Tomorrow we will work on the tyre programme more extensively for Imola to be able to make the tyre choice for the race."

Similarly, Panis was also extremely positive after his days work; "Today was a good day, putting in a good amount of laps. Today I was driving with the old aerodynamic package testing various items, like balance set-ups and traction control scans. Tomorrow, the car will be set up with the new chassis and therefore we have a bigger tyre test programme planned. The last test really helped us to move in the right direction and I feel the test team did a great job pushing hard to prepare for the last race. The results were positive for the team, but we still have to keep going to be fully competitive."

Splitting the two Toyota’s was Gary Paffett in a V10 limited McLaren, and still running around in a hybrid version of last years machine (I beg the question… why?). Jacques Villeneuve was the only race driver on hand today, the French Canadian ending up seventh in his BMW-Sauber, almost a second behind Kovalainen. Finally, Robert Doornbos finished last in his Red Bull Racing Ferrari.

1	H. Kovalainen		Renault		01:04.927	137
2	P. de la Rosa		McLaren		01:05.028	104
3	R. Kubica		BMW		01:05.070	150
4	R. Zonta		Toyota		01:05.291	142
5	G. Paffett		McLaren		01:05.534	84
6	O. Panis		Toyota		01:05.754	109
7	J. Villeneuve		BMW		01:05.810	93
8	R. Doornbos		Red Bull		01:06.420	56