By Karl King
April 15 2005

Olivier Panis and Ricardo Zonta carried out testing duties for Toyota at Paul Ricard in La Castallet in France on Wednesday and Thursday.

Panis set the fastest time of the two Toyota boys, with a 1m03.312 over Zonta's 1m03.567.

After the test Olivier commented on the test; "We had a very good test, putting in a huge amount of laps over the two days.
I feel good with the car and it still looks really competitive. I did some
work on set-up and dampers and we tried out some different levels of
downforce but most of my time was spent working on Michelin tyres for next
week's San Marino Grand Prix. Imola is a circuit that is hard for graining,
especially when the track is still dirty. Paul Ricard has a similar track
surface and the harder tyres we've tried this week seem to work well"

Toyota have struggled over the kerbs at San Marino in the past. Ricardo thinks of Toyota's chances; "It's true that Imola has always been a track where we've been very weak in
the past but I think we have improved in that area as well. Olivier and I
have done some work on dampers here which should help, but you can never
truly simulate Imola's unique kerbs. So, while I'm sure the car will be a
lot better than it used to be, we still have some work to do and we will
only really find out how far we've come on Friday or Saturday at the race."

Panis didn't have much different to say on the same topic, commenting "So far our results have been incredible, especially in the hot races, and I
hope that we can continue that kind of form. On paper, the first two races
in Europe could be a bit more difficult for us but we've done some work here
to prepare for the cooler conditions in Imola, so let's hope things go well.
What we have already achieved is fantastic. Now we need to keep concentrated
and keep pushing."