Toyota blames qualifying for struggles

Toyota's technical chief Pascal Vasselon is convinced his team's recent struggles are only related to its problems in qualifying

The Japanese squad started the season strongly and aiming to score its first Formula 1 victory, but has seen its hopes dashes after dropping down the order.

Toyota has scored just six points in the last four races and is now fifth in the standings.

Neither Jarno Trulli nor Timo Glock have qualified in the top ten in the last three events, although Glock set the fastest lap of the race in Valencia last Sunday.

Vasselon believes the team has no problems with its race pace, and that it's only qualifying that needs sorted.

"The primary reason is obviously the qualifying pace, because Timo set the fastest lap of the race," Vasselon said. "And it wasn't just one lap, all his lap times has been consistently extremely fast, so the problem is clearly the qualifying times.

"Only Hamilton was probably faster than Timo in the race. So it's difficult to understand exactly what is going on."

He added: "We are obviously in trouble, because as long as we don't qualify in the top ten it's going to be very difficult. I would say we are in trouble, we are not happy with the situation. We are basically questioning everything.

"The only light we see is the race pace, because we are not just decent, we are quick. In Budapest and here we are talking about being the second fastest car, with only Hamilton possibly better. That's what gives us a little bit of hope.

"We still have hope to find the problem, because we see we have potential."

The Frenchman conceded the results at fast tracks like Spa and Monza will only depend on its performance in qualifying, as he reckons Toyota's car can adapt to most circuits.

"Our performance will depend on our capacity to fix our qualifying problems. We have to fix the problem," he said.