Jarno Trulli says he sees no reason why the
Toyota F1 team can't be competitive for the remainder of the season as it seeks to try and secure fourth place in the constructors' championship.
The Cologne-based outfit currently holds the position but is just a point ahead of
Red Bull Racing and two ahead of
Renault going into the second half of the campaign, with Renault having hauled themselves right into contention following Nelson Piquet's second place finish at Hockenheim.
Indeed Toyota looked good to score well in the German race with Trulli having qualified on the second row of the grid but – after a good start to the race – he lost out in the final stint to come home just outside the points in ninth place.
"It was quite frustrating but sometimes that happens in racing," he said. "We had possibly our strongest qualifying of the year so we were expecting to fight for the top six, but it didn't turn out that way in the end. In the last stint, when I was on the prime tyres, I had serious problems with balance which made it really difficult for me.
"I pushed as hard as possible but it wasn't easy and I had
Sebastian Vettel just behind me. It was really hard to keep him behind and I locked the brakes a bit at the hairpin, which was enough for him to get by. After that it got harder and I finished ninth."
However, despite the disappointment of missing out on a place in the top eight, Trulli said he saw no reason why the kind of pace that saw him qualify fourth in Germany can't continue through the remainder of the season with the team working hard to secure ‘best of the rest' honours behind
McLaren,
Ferrari and
BMW in the championship standings.
"I think we should be competitive for the rest of the season; there is no reason why not," he said. "We made a lot of improvements already this year and there is more to come. We will be working hard at the test this week and we should be able to fight for points again.
