After finishing outside of the points for only the second time in 2008 in last weekend's Turkish Grand Prix,
Toyota have admitted that they have much work to do if they are to successfully battle it out with
Williams,
Renault and
Red Bull Racing for fourth position in the constructors' title chase.
Having done his usual sterling job to qualify inside the top ten – thereby maintaining his 100 per cent record thus far this season –
Jarno Trulli slipped back three spots when the lights went out down to eleventh, and from thereon in was unable to regain any of the lost ground as he ultimately went on to take the chequered flag a frustrated and disappointed tenth, less than five seconds shy of the final points-paying position. When told to ‘push' over the team radio towards the end of the grand prix, the experienced Italian amusingly replied that he was already ‘pushing like hell!'
“My race was spoiled at the start,” the 33-year-old rued afterwards. “There was a bit of confusion in the first corner – I think I was touched by a car and I lost three positions. That was it for my race, because after that I couldn't do anything to make up the ground.
“From the first lap to the last I tried to push to find a way past [David] Coulthard. We were quite close, but unfortunately with these cars as soon as you get two lengths behind the other car you just lose grip and start going off. I kept pushing as hard as possible all race, but this was as good as we could do.”
Team-mate
Timo Glock was similarly out of luck in Istanbul, paying the price for a troubled qualifying session that had left him down in 15th on the starting grid after encountering problems towards the end of Q2. Though he would duel energetically throughout the race, 13th place at the finish line was unfortunately as good as it would get.
