Paul Ricard 28/4/06 – Toyota 1st and 3rd fastest


By Nick Sparkes
April 29 2006

Toyota’s final day at the Paul Ricard circuit in France saw Ralf Schumacher replace Jarno Trulli in the new B-spec Toyota. The German wasted no time in the new machine by going fastest, whilst Ricardo Zonta ended his week long test just 0.3 seconds behind.

Unlike yesterday, it was dry and sunny for the majority of the final day, allowing German’s Ralf Schumacher a chance to try out the new TF106B. "Today we tried different tyre specifications and set-ups for the coming races. I worked with the new car and everything is going as expected, but we had some delays while work was being done on the car and therefore I cannot say a whole lot about it yet. In general, we have improved on the tyre warm-up issue and tried various different compounds from Bridgestone. Although the coming races will be challenging because we are still developing the car and our strategy, I think the team is doing a good job and moving in the right direction."

In contrast Ricardo Zonta has been doing the bulk of the work for Toyota this week, covering over 300 laps as the team prepares for the European Grand Prix. "We spent the last three days on a version of the circuit that was new for us. We did a lot of Bridgestone tyre work as well as set-up testing for Nürburging. It went pretty well and I put in over 300 laps over the three days. Today we finished the programme early getting through the test after pushing hard the whole day. I think the team can be satisfied with the work we got through during this test."

Michael Schumacher was in between the two Toyota’s in third, but did set the overall best time yesterday, breaking the lap record on the 3E SC circuit.

1 R. Schumacher Toyota Bridgestone 00:58.840 101
2 M. Schumacher Ferrari Bridgestone 00:59.087 156
3 R. Zonta Toyota Bridgestone 00:59.163 153