Barcelona 01/06/06 – Toyota 3rd and 6th fastest


By Nick Sparkes
June 2 2006

The second day of testing at Barcelona once again saw Toyota high up on the time sheets. Under sunny weather Ricardo Zonta moved onto the TF106, with Jarno Trulli taking over in the TF106B. The pair finished half a second apart, and are confident of a return to form at Silverstone next weekend.

Michael Schumacher finished the day fastest, after beating the unofficial track record with a 1.13.471. The same couldn’t be said for teammate Luca Badoer who smashed his Ferrari into the tyre barriers at turn three, finishing his day before it had really began, although Badoer’s early time still saw him finish in the top ten.

Renault’s Heikki Kovalainen was second, whilst Ricardo Zonta was half a second down the road in third.

Zonta’s final day was very successful, with the Brazilian predicting a strong showing at Silverstone next weekend, where he hopes the car will be at its most competitive. "I think today's testing shows positive results. Being the third fastest in the times shows that the car can be competitive. Everything on the car was feeling good and we collected quite a bit of information, like temperature measurements and brake comparison data. Building on this week's experience, Silverstone should see better results for the team."

Nico Rosberg was a strong fourth for Williams, whilst Giancarlo Fisichella finished eight tenths behind his teammate in fifth. Jarno Trulli finished ahead of both Honda’s and McLaren’s in fifth.

For Jarno the reliability issues continued, with his day cut short by gearbox worries. This comes only a few days after his first points, and indeed his first podium of 2006 were dashed just 5 laps from the end when his Toyota stopped. Yet, Jarno is keeping his faith and confidence. "Today's agenda was to work on the B-car's set-up, yet we had a lot of delays for red lights and adjustments on the car. Nevertheless, I drove quite a few laps until we were forced to finish a little early at the end of the test session because the gearbox on my car needed to be worked on. Tomorrow I will drive the B-car again and we will continue to focus on set-up variations for Silverstone."

Tomorrow Toyota plan to do some long runs and tyre evaluation for Silverstone, the team making the most of the larger fuel tank implanted into the new TF106B.

1 M. Schumacher Ferrari Bridgestone 01:13.471 82
2 H. Kovalainen Renault Michelin 01:14.174 120
3 R. Zonta Toyota Bridgestone 01:14.696 106
4 N. Rosberg Williams Bridgestone 01:14.731 87
5 G. Fisichella Renault Michelin 01:14.854 112
6 J. Trulli Toyota Bridgestone 01:14.131 102
7 P. de la Rosa McLaren Michelin 01:15.238 84
8 J. Villeneuve BMW Michelin 01:15.526 111
9 J. Button Honda Michelin 01:15.590 109
10 L. Badoer Ferrari Bridgestone 01:15.637 27
11 JP. Montoya McLaren Michelin 01:15.652 61
12 N. Heidfeld BMW Michelin 01:15.783 125
13 R. Barrichello Honda Michelin 01:15.826 96
14 C. Klien Red Bull Michelin 01:15.871 65
15 R. Doornbos Red Bull Michelin 01:17.018 115
16 A. Wurz Williams Bridgestone 01:17.188 83
17 N. Jani Scuderia Toro Rosso Michelin 01:17.224 92