Jarno Trulli was left bemoaning a breakdown in communications late on in the Spanish Grand Prix at the weekend, causing the
Toyota ace to needlessly slip back two places in the race's closing stages.
Having qualified eighth, a bright start saw the Italian run seventh early on, battling closely with
Mark Webber's
Red Bull Racing ahead and
Nico Rosberg's
Williams behind. Former team-mate
Fernando Alonso's retirement from fifth spot promoted Trulli to sixth midway through.
He would have remained there to the chequered flag, had it not been for an error that saw him summoned back into the pits again just seven laps after his second stop – when the call had been meant for team-mate
Timo Glock, to repair damage to the German's TF108 in the wake of his coming-together with
David Coulthard. Trulli ultimately crossed the line just 6.4 seconds adrift of
Jenson Button in the sixth place that should have been his, and little over a second behind
Kazuki Nakajima in seventh.
“We've scored another point,” the 33-year-old reflected afterwards, before adding ruefully, “but it should have been more. The race wasn't easy, but everything was going well and we were heading for sixth. Then a communications error led to the team mistakenly calling me into the pits.
“These things happen, but that cost us two precious points. Up to then it had been a hard weekend, but we were heading for a strong result. It was a battle but I was getting the maximum out of the package and doing my best to stay as close to Webber as possible. We are in a tight group of teams, and we will have to keep pushing hard on development to maintain our momentum.”
Glock, meanwhile, eventually trailed home eleventh after his ill-timed lunge at Coulthard removed his car's front wing. He had earlier lost his front wing endplate in an opening lap skirmish, meaning his race was not the easiest from beginning to end.
