Timo Glock managed to notch up his first finish of the season in Bahrain last weekend, when he brought his TF108 home in ninth - only one place off the points. Here the German look back on that event and ahead to the next round in Spain later on this month…
Q:
Timo, how was the Bahrain weekend for you?
Timo Glock:
It was positive to complete a race distance after what happened in Australia and Malaysia but obviously I would be happier if I had finished in the points. Qualifying wasn’t easy and in Q2 on my second run I could feel the car wasn’t handling as well as it had been earlier, probably because of the wind. It was disappointing not to make it to Q3 but I was strong in the race. I made up quite a few positions and it is encouraging to see the level of performance we have. Jarno [Trulli] drove another great race and it’s fantastic for the team to see how competitive we are this season.
Q:
How close were you to your first championship point for Panasonic
Toyota Racing?
TG:
I was really close because I had the pace to beat
Nico Rosberg in the final round of pit stops and get eighth place. Unfortunately I had a gearbox control problem which meant that we switched to back-up mode. Without that problem I think I would have been eighth.
Q:
Was it an advantage for you to get experience of the track in February?
TG:
I raced at Sakhir in GP2 and of course back in 2004 I did Friday practice, so I had some circuit experience, but the test in February was positive and it was good to arrive in Bahrain with some experience of the TF108 on this track. We did a race simulation so we had some data, although all the teams were up to speed and quick by the end of Friday anyway. Also, we were faced with different conditions every day, with the wind changing, so we had to adapt to that.
Q:
You have had three Grands Prix back in
Formula 1 now, how are you settling in?
TG:
I’m enjoying it a lot. It’s not so different from other classes of racing but what you notice is that you have a really tight schedule compared to GP2 or Champ Car. There’s all the travelling of course and you see a lot of airports. But that’s the life of a Formula 1 driver. You couldn’t do it if you had a plane phobia!
Q:
Is the amount of testing in Formula 1 a big change compared to other series?
TG:
That is definitely true. In GP2 you are limited, and the same with Champ Car and Formula 3, so it is a lot of work now compared to those championships. You gather a lot of information in testing and you need to understand how to use that to move your set-up in the right direction. It is interesting to watch Jarno in testing because he has so much experience and when I watch him at work he just knows what he has to do. He is so professional and I am learning a lot.
![Timo Glock - Toyota TF108 [Pic credit: Toyota]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/407330.jpg)
