Encouraging sixth for Toyota

"Today [Friday] was a very constructive for our first time in Canada. The team worked well, we learned a lot and we have a clear idea in which direction to go tomorrow," said team manager Ange Pasquali. "Mika's time was quite encouraging."

Salo said: "The car felt reasonable for our first day at the circuit. We still have some work to do, particularly on car set-up and gear ratios, but we will sit down and do our homework this afternoon in order to improve for tomorrow."

On his first visit to the track, Allan McNish was treating the day as a learning experience, so he needed all the running he could get. Unfortunately, this was restricted in the second session and finished back in 20th position.

"I had an oil leak in session two, which meant taking off the rear of the car and the engine," revealed the Scot. "It was unfortunate because it is our first time in Montreal and track time is vital."