The whole weekend was already looking pretty promising for Panasonic Toyota racing when they started their training sessions, Friday morning an afternoon on the beautiful track of Bahrain.

The first free practice Toyota decided not to send Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher on the circuit to save the engine and tires…so Ricardo Zonta was the only Toyota driver. He was glad to be driving again and he showed that by driving to the fastest time of 1:31.499. But he wasn’t alone all day; in the second free practice Ralf an Jarno were to be found on the track again, as well as Ricardo Zonta. While, looking for the best set-up and choosing the right tires for the weekend the three, again, did a nice job by driving themselves to acceptable places; Zonta was 14^th, Ralf 10^th and Trulli 6^th.

Saturday, the day on the 1^st qualification but…firstly the last two free practices. Making some last changes to the car for the qualifications and the Race, Ralf and Jarno drove nice times and even better; they both were in the top ten.

Everybody is now ready for the first qualification. The first of the two who qualified was Ralf Schumacher. Ralf’s lap was quite disappointing because at the and he only managed to get the 11^th time. But it was absolutely not without a reason; he suffered a lot of under steer, the effect of that problem was a fatale mistake in the second sector in turn eight. He lost a whole sector or even more because of that which is a shame!

Then it was Trulli’s turn. He was slower then Michael Schumacher (who by the way made an interesting comeback!) in the first sector, but he made it right in the last to sectors by being faster than him which is good!

The final results of the qualification: Fernando Alonso got the Provincial pole, Trulli was second fastest, Michael Schumacher 3^rd fastest and Ralf Schumacher captured the eleventh time. Coming back to Ralf, he promised to the team and himself to make it up in the second qualification on Sunday morning.

Did he manage to turn these words into deeds??

Oh yes he absolutely can; he drove what I can easily call a SSQ (Super Second Qualification!)!!! No mistakes, not even one and no suffering of under steer, over steer or bad car-handling. He was faster than his own team-mate (second), who was 4^th in the 2^nd quail, but unfortunately for Ralf the times are being aggregated.

For Trulli it was not a really good lap; he had suffered a bit of under steer and it was quite windy what was working against him. He even was only fourth quickest and by the new rules of aggregation dropped down one place what meant, third place for him. It also cost him a third time 1^st row, but I guess he could live with that, I mean, third place…it’s still a very good result!

OK, Ralf has kept his word and by that he rose up  5 places what meant for him 6^th time, third row on the grid! The top six of the final grid is: For the second time of this season, pole position for Fernando Alonso, comeback Michael Schumacher second, Jarno Trulli 3^rd, Quick Nick Heidfeld 4^th, 5^th place for Mark Webber and a well deserved 6^th place for Ralf Schumacher.

Now…..can Ralf and Jarno keep their 6^th and 2^nd place, or can it get even better?!

It’s a few minutes before the start of the 2005 Gulf Air Grand Prix of Bahrain in the beautiful city of Manama. Everybody is making their last preparations for the race. Ice is being thrown in the air holes of the cars and the drivers are doing as much as possible to cool themselves by putting on cooling vests, throwing some wet towels in their neck and on their head or even putting their overalls in the refrigerator like many drivers do in hot situations like these!

The race is about to start when, on the starting grid, Christian Klien stands still, and the Red Bull technicians could not stick the vehicle on to driving again. The Austrian unfortunately has no choice but to stop the his race before he even begun it.

By the start, everybody comes away good. The first round is very hectic with tremendously many switches and overtaking. Trulli tries to squeak even with Michael Schumacher, but the German closes the door quickly. Still a nice try Jarno! But ok…. Barrichello gets into a little fight with Coulthard and hit’s him with the left side, but he makes up many places. 

Michael Schumacher keeps following Alonso very sharp, and limits the gap until 0.5 seconds. It was a beautiful fight, but with an early end because the German suddenly miss braked his car and after that he drives suspicious slow to the pit lane into his garage where he parked his vehicle

Ralf Schumacher, meanwhile is fighting with Nick Heidfeld, who is suffering from a bad car balance.  The McLaren pilot, Pedro de la Rosa, is doing it extremely well! He’s keeps on getting on Takuma Sato’s heels all the time. After a few failed manoeuvres to overtake Sato he finally overtakes him. Takuma then got teased by a failure of its brakes; each time he’s braking for a curve there black smoke from his brakes, and trust me, that cannot be good! That is why he decided, just like Michael Schumacher, to play it safe by parking his car in B·A·R  Honda’s garage.

In front the fight had been fought, but not far behind the presents had been not divided yet. Mark Webber got Pedro de la Rosa on its tail after he was overtaken by Kimi Raikkonen. The fight Webber-de la Rosa lasted till the last rounds, and de la Rosa overtook Webber and got away with the fifth place. In the last pit stop of Jenson button his engine fell out. The mechanics did such a good job by trying to get the engine started and it did work…..but not for long unfortunately! Button was now forced to quit with his race.

Jacques Villeneuve also had chance to score its first points for Sauber, but an excursion on the outfield of the Bahraini circuit prevented him of it.

The Grand Prix of Bahrain has come to its last laps. There isn’t much competition anymore and the places are as good as sure….or not? Rubens Barrichello got again(!!!) problems with the gearbox, whereby he caught up by Button, Mass and Coulthard in the last round!

That was the last overtaking of this race and Fernando Alonso has reached the finish line after a quite easy race, followed by….yes he did it(!!!!!), Jarno Trulli! Jarno tried to keep up with Michael (Schumacher), later with Fernando Alonso but he understood that this second place was too valuable to lose. From that point he drove a lonely but safe race. Kimi Raikonnen managed to overtake 5 drivers and by that captured the third place. The fourth place was more than well deserved for Ralf Schumacher. He drove an outstanding race with some nice overtaking!

Again a second place podium finish and a very good result in the points. Another amazingly good result for Toyota. At the Malaysian Grand Prix they scored 12 points. This race they scored 13 points. Together that’s 25 five points and a second place in the constructors championship plus in drivers championship Jarno Trulli second with 16 points and Ralf a 4^th place with 9 points! We absolutely can be proud of them! Yeah! There’s no doubt about that!

16 races left on the schedule and the next destination is Imola in San Marino. First we have three whole non-Formula One racing weeks! But we’re not without Formula One completely; there going to be some tests this week. And in the meantime Toyota can keep improving their car.

Hopefully they can compete for points, podiums and maybe even for (some) victory(ies).

It’s really possible!

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