Toyota's
Jarno Trulli has said that he has 'high hopes' for Sunday's French Grand Prix after put his TF108 on the second row of the grid.
Trulli was in fine form throughout qualifying at Magny Cours setting the third best time in Q1, the fourth best in Q2 and the fifth best in the top-ten shoot-out.
He will actually start one-spot higher up though as a result of
Lewis Hamilton's penalty, which promotes Trulli to P4 alongside his former
Renault team-mate,
Fernando Alonso.
"That was a great qualifying session so I'm really pleased," said Trulli. "I didn't expect to be so quick but I've been building up to this all weekend. The car was well balanced and everything went well, particularly my last lap.
"Early in Q3 I spun because I was pushing hard to find the limit with fuel on board. I didn't panic and I just changed a few settings for the last run.
"We'll have to see how it goes tomorrow but I have high hopes because so far I've felt even more confident driving the car in race trim. Clearly this is a particularly important weekend for us as we are remembering Ove Andersson and everything he has done for us. This is a good start and we want to dedicate everything we achieve this weekend to him."
Timo Glock meanwhile also went well in the sister TF108 and although he was only tenth fastest in Q3, he will actually start in eighth as a result of the penalties handed to Hamilton and
Heikki Kovalainen.
"Following our problems in practice yesterday, we are happy with this result. But I am still having a hard time with the tyres," Glock revealed. "On low fuel we had a competitive pace that was similar to Jarno but on high fuel loads in Q3 I struggled a bit. So we still have to work to find a better way to manage the tyres for tomorrow.
"Still, this is definitely a positive result today. We have both cars in the top ten which is good for the team who have been working very hard at the track and back in Cologne. Hopefully we can score some points in the race."
