By Nick Sparkes
May 29 2005

Panasonic Toyota Racing kick started their European Grand Prix hopes with Ricardo Zonta putting in two top three fastest times during Friday's practice, continuing with Ralf Schumacher And Jarno Trulli's top eight finish during the final session on Saturday. During Friday practice Ricardo Zonta continued to show the teams true performance with second fastest in the days opening session, matched with a third a few hours later. Ricardo's Toyota ran without a hitch to the delight of the employee's of the Panasonic Toyota Racing factory who have packed out the grandstands for their 'home' Grand Prix.

Toyota race drivers Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli ended the day 10th and 11th places respectively, looking at set-up and tyre compounds.

Ralf welcomed the extra support from the Toyota team this weekend. "We still have a lot to do on the set-up because I am not happy with that yet. The tyre choice looks relatively straightforward here and we will confirm that tonight. Now we just have to put in a bit of work overnight on the set-up. It's great that we have some of the people who work in the factory here this weekend. So let's hope we can bring home a decent result on Sunday."

Whilst Jarno Trulli, third in the championship, was optimistic of the team’s hopes this weekend. "We had a positive day because we did a lot of laps and learned a lot of things," said Trulli. "On the other hand we didn't really show the full potential of the car because I spent much of the afternoon either stuck in traffic or finding yellow flags. So our lap time is not very representative and we remain confident for tomorrow when we will understand better where we are. This is one of our home races so we'll hope for another good result."

Like the rest of Europe, Germany was enjoying the surprise heat wave which has made its appearance this weekend. Saturday was no different, with the track surface almost 40 degrees. This didn't stop Toyota though, and after a slow start to the day managed to finish fifth and eighth for Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher. They go into qualifying with a chance of challenging the first few rows of the grid, and although pole might not be a possibility this weekend, a strong points finish and a podium must be on the cards for the Panasonic Toyota Racing team tomorrow.