By Nick Sparkes
April 14 2006

Over the past couple of weeks Jarno Trulli has been scene for much debate here on the TotallyToyotaF1 message board, but on his return to the testing scene the Italian showed no signs of slowing down as the Toyota ace set the pace by going fastest. Jarno’s return comes after a disappointing Australian Grand Prix, where not only did he retire after a matter of corners, but the Italian had been suffering from flu and was forced to remain in Australia a couple of days after the Grand Prix. But now, fully recovered, Jarno Trulli is back on track and showing his worth by completing 81 laps, and going fastest in the process. "To be honest, I am happy with today's running here, although I had some issues with the car in the morning. We have improved the tyres and the car set-up a lot since the first two races, and finally as a result this is fitting my driving style. This is a huge improvement for me and today's results show that we are moving ahead. We still have a lot to work on, but everything has to go step by step. The team has worked hard to find the optimal solutions and I am confident that for myself I have found a good direction and that the tyres are working better with our car."

Just behind Jarno came championship leader Fernando Alonso, who enjoyed a much more successful day after the troubles he encountered yesterday. Michael Schumacher made his ‘high profile’ return, with the German finishing third, ahead of Kimi Räikkönen who was fourth.

Nick Heidfeld was an ever impressive fifth for BMW-Sauber, finishing ahead of Fisichella, Rosberg and Button.

At the other end of the scale were a few surprises, including people like Coulthard, Barrichello, Ralf Schumacher and Villeneuve who finished tenth, eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth.

Although Ralf was no where near the pace of teammate Jarno Trulli, the ever optimistic German was happy with his first day back. "Today was relatively successful, as we got through our test programme as planned without any big problems. We concentrated on tyre testing and some set-up work for Imola and the coming races. The track was busy with many cars, but in decent condition and this is similar to what we could have in Imola. In general, we have learned a lot about the tyres and the car and therefore we are working on doing our best with the package that we have. Tomorrow we will focus on long-runs and tyre testing."

1	J. Trulli		Toyota		01:14.522	81
2	F. Alonso		Renault		01:14.532	106
3	M. Schumacher		Ferrari		01:14.711	94
4	K. Räikkönen		McLaren		01:14.899	93
5	N. Heidfeld		BMW		01:14.940	66
6	G. Fisichella		Renault		01:15.105	112
7	N. Rosberg		Williams		01:15.209	82
8	J. Button		Honda		01:15.292	150
9	C. Klien		Red Bull		01:15.299	101
10	D. Coulthard		Red Bull		01:15.347	101
11	R. Barrichello		Honda		01:15.388	133
12	R. Schumacher		Toyota		01:15.410	73
13	J. Villeneuve		BMW		01:15.547	97
14	JP. Montoya		McLaren		01:15.688	103
15	F. Massa		Ferrari		01:15.727	86
16	M. Webber		Williams		01:16.019	108
17	S. Speed		Scuderia Toro Rosso		01:16.599	102
18	T. Sato		Super Aguri		01:19.826	22