Saturday: Toyota well positioned for a points finish

Since the Singapore Grand Prix, Toyota has returned to its early-season form and is now regularly fighting for top 10 positions.

While Trulli is still plagued with doubts about his future with the Japanese team, he perfectly fulfilled his role by fighting all day among the fastest, ultimately qualifying on the third row, in 6th place.

As for Kamui Kobayashi, he once again surprised the paddock with his first dry qualifying session by quickly getting up to speed and narrowly missing out on Q3. Confident for the race, the Japanese rookie will be able to fight for points again in the race.

Jarno Trulli – 7th and 6th:

It was a tough session because it’s extremely hard to fight in hot conditions, the lap times were really tight even though it’s a long circuit. I felt it was working well in each session and I’m happy with sixth place. It’s nice to fight at the front of the grid, so it’s another good experience for me. Obviously, you always want to be higher, but we’ve done a good job so far this weekend and we deserve to be in the top 6. The car seems solid and I think we’re well-positioned for the race, so I’m eager to get into the fight.

Kamui Kobayashi – 13th and 12th:

I was hoping to be in the top 10 here, but it’s the first time in Formula 1 that I qualified in dry conditions, so I needed to get used to it. Free practice has been good all weekend, and the car seems fast. Qualifying wasn’t easy, but in the end, I was only a tenth and a bit off the top 10, so for my first dry qualifying, it’s not bad. I’ve focused on my race pace this weekend, so I’m fairly confident for tomorrow. I will do my best and hope to fight for points again; we’ll see what we can do.

Pascal Vasselon – Chassis Director:

These qualifications were directly influenced by the choice of tires and the management of their temperature, as well as avoiding traffic. In general, we succeeded even though, of course, we hoped to be a little higher on the grid with both cars. Jarno fought for the top 3 in all sessions, and Kamui did very well for his second Formula 1 qualification, his first in dry conditions. In the end, it’s a reasonably good result; our fuel load is competitive, so we should have an interesting race tomorrow. It’s obviously the last race of the season, and we really want to finish with a good result, and we are in good shape to achieve that.