An elated and emotional
Jarno Trulli has dedicated his rostrum finish in the French Grand Prix this weekend to former Toyota
F1 team principal Ove Andersson, who was tragically killed in a rallying accident only 11 days ago.
The Italian – who knows Magny-Cours like that back of his hand from his days spent with Prost Grand Prix from 1997 to 1999 – produced a sublime performance in qualifying to put his TF108 fifth on the starting grid, what subsequently became fourth with
Lewis Hamilton's ten-place demotion for his Canadian Grand Prix misdemeanour.
From there Trulli made a blistering start to vault past fellow second row sitter – and former team-mate –
Fernando Alonso, and he would hold third place for virtually the whole of the 70 laps, despite coming under intense late-race pressure from both
Heikki Kovalainen and erstwhile world championship leader
Robert Kubica, both of whom were at the wheel of significantly faster cars.
Though Kovalainen very nearly found a way by on the penultimate tour, Trulli held his nerve and – unlike his error in the same race back in 2004, when he let
Ferrari's
Rubens Barrichello by in the very last turn – retained his position all the way to the chequered flag to hoist himself up to seventh in the drivers' title chase, ‘best-of-the-rest' behind the drivers from the top three teams.
“What a great result and a great weekend by the whole team,” the 33-year-old enthused afterwards. “We were pushing really hard because we wanted to dedicate this result to Ove Andersson, who has done so much for Toyota Motorsport.
“Today was a great race, hard and tough. We had good pace, even if we had to battle with some cars that were quicker than us. I had to fight really hard, but that is what people should expect both from myself and from
Toyota.
“When the rain came at the end I had to take care because it's always difficult to judge how bad it is when you're in front, but I got back into a rhythm and had a wheel-to-wheel fight with Heikki, just like in go-karts.
