If the inaugural Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was a job interview for Kamui Kobayashi at Toyota F1 for next year, then the reigning GP2 Series Champion looks to have passed with flying colours...
Toyota has confirmed what many in the F1 paddock have long feared by dropping hints that a withdrawal from competition at the end of the 2009 world championship campaign - following in the wheeltracks of Honda and BMW - is not out of the question.
Having ascended the rostrum in Singapore for the first time since Malaysia all the way back in early April, Timo Glock has clearly regained the taste for podium champagne - and is eyeing a second successive climb up the steps on Toyota's home turf at Suzuka this weekend, what would undoubtedly be
Jarno Trulli has insisted that Toyota was far more competitive than its results in the German Grand Prix at the N?rburgring made it appear - as the Italian's second-quickest lap time on race day was masked by his 17th-place finish at the chequered flag.
Toyota was left licking its wounds after a race it could - and perhaps should - have won in Sakhir today, with a crucial strategic error seeing the big-budget Japanese manufacturer once again come up short of registering its breakthrough Formula 1 victory.
In a race full of incident, Jarno Trulli probably came off worse than anyone in the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai today, after being rear-ended by the BMW-Sauber of Robert Kubica into the final corner, with the speed differential of the two cars destroying the Toyota's back section on the spot.