Toyota pleased with new car

Panis qualified ninth on Saturday, but team-mate Cristiano da Matta struggled and will start back in 15th, between the heavily-fuelled Saubers.

"A satisfying day for the team and a result that demonstrates the progress we have made with the TF104B," said Gascoyne. "We have definitely made a step forward compared to the opposition. Both cars looked competitive in free practice, especially over long runs. I think we have a good race pace, which we haven't had in recent races.

"Unfortunately, Cristiano was unable to repeat his lap time from the morning sessions, despite being on a similar fuel load, so we will have to look into what happened. It is a shame that we couldn't get both cars into the top ten in qualifying because I think the car was capable of it."

Da Matta said: "On both of my runs, I had difficulty entering Turn 2, as well as some problems braking into Turn 6. We have to look into this, because I experienced no trouble there in practice. The TF104B has shown that it is a better car with improvements on the aerodynamics side, so it is frustrating that I couldn't show its potential in qualifying."