Toyota Vow to Solve Race Day Issues

"That was a tough race for just one point for the team," said team principal Tsutomu Tomita. 

"We did well to get two cars home to the finish, but the race was spoiled by our pace in the early stages when we struggled and just lost too much time.

"That is a similar problem to the one we faced in last week's French Grand Prix. So we have to analyse why that is happening and try to understand it, because certainly in the second half of the race we were much more competitive."

Italian Jarno Trulli, starting from the second row of the grid, was unable to keep the impressive pace showed in qualifying and quickly dropped down the order to finish in ninth place.

Trulli, who suffered a similar problem in France, claimed he began to lose grip in the early stages before the car started working better again in the second part of the race.

"It's very frustrating to miss out on the points after a day that was as hard as that," said Trulli. "I made a slow getaway and that meant I lost positions at the first corner. Then we had grip problems during the early part of the race just as we had in France last week.

"That eventually got better and better with each stint as we went through the race. But we made a mistake with our strategy and I lost positions because I was always in traffic or being held up by blue flags. I did my very best and went as quick as I could.

"Now we have to hope for a better race next time."

Teammate Ralf Schumacher collected a point from eighth place, which was a disappointing result for Toyota, who on Saturday claimed they would be fighting for the podium.

"After a tough race like that I have to be happy with a point today, although I wish it could have been more," said Schumacher. "I made a tyre choice which I hoped would have worked to my advantage, but it meant that I was struggling for grip and sliding around. That made it hard to keep the car on the road and to maintain consistent lap times.

"I also lost a position at the start, so that is why I am especially happy with my result, bringing home one point. Still, it's obvious that we have a lot of work to do and I hope we have a better performance at Hockenheim in a fortnight's time."