Problems and progress for Toyota.

It was a day of mixed fortunes for Panasonic Toyota Racing on the final day of this week's Barcelona test, as rookie Cristiano da Matta had another solid day but veteran Olivier Panis was left to kick his heels in pit-lane for much of the session.

da Matta, on his third day of running with his new team, completed an impressive, and generally trouble-free, 79 laps, and was allowed to move off the bottom of the timesheets by countryman Antonio Pizzonia, who endured a trying day in the Jaguar. The reigning CART champion's goal was still to accumulate seat time in the standard TF102, a feat he achieved whilst evaluating a few set-up changes.

"Today, I was very happy and the car is feeling much better," da Matta revealed, "Again, we focused on completing lots of laps, but we also did some work on traction control and set-up changes, which went well. I feel I have made real progress this week, although there are still some areas to work on and I am looking ahead to next week's Paul Ricard test."

Panis, on the other hand, was a frustrated Frenchman, hindered by technical problems and managing only 27 laps of the Circuit de Catalunya.

"It was a bit annoying that we did so few laps today," he sighed, "We planned on running the same programme [as earlier in the week], working on car set-up and on the reliability of the new engine and gearbox. However, we had a minor hydraulic leak at the end of the morning session, which caused a fire in the car and it took most of the day to fix the problem.

"When I finally got back on track at the end of the session, we had a gearbox problem. I am happy that these difficulties are happening now rather than next year, and for my first test with the team I am very positive, but..."

The dry and sunny conditions throughout the test allowed Toyota to accomplish most of its goals, but the team will also return to its Cologne base to pore over the glitches that arose in Barcelona.

"It has been a very useful test," confirmed team principal Ove Andersson, "We have found some weaknesses on the new gearbox, and the new rear-end in general, but we have also learnt a bit on the aerodynamics that we want to introduce on the TF103, and this session has been very good from that point of view.

"Cristiano seems to have well-acquainted himself with F1 and showed well, especially considering he was driving a standard TF102. Olivier was in our interim TF102B car. After having worked for the first time with both drivers for three days, we are very, very positive about the result."

Next week sees more on-track action for the team, with Panis returning to the Circuit de Catalunya for a three-day session from 3-5 December. da Matta also goes solo next week, as he completes a four-day test at Circuit Paul Ricard from 2-5 December.