Gascoyne: Toyota will be on podium soon

Toyota struggled badly at the opening race of the season in Bahrain, and Ralf Schumacher started from the back of the grid at Sepang after his engine failed in qualifying.

The German managed to race through the field, though, and claimed the team's first point of the season in eighth place.

Toyota have switched to Bridgestone tyres, and it was the inability to get the car working with the rubber-ware that led to Schumacher and teammate Jarno Trulli using the opening race of the season as 57-lap test session.

"Clearly we managed to get the tyres working better this weekend," Gascoyne said. "It went very well considering Ralf's difficulties in qualifying yesterday and that we had him on a two-stop strategy and had to switch that to a three-stop strategy, based on that it was a very strong performance.

"If you look at Ralf's pace in the second half of the race, when he was in free air, he was very, very strong. We've just got to do it from the front of the grid, not from the back."

Trulli, who qualified and finished ninth at Sepang, agreed.

"I think it was much better for us and we were definitely more competitive," said the Italian. "Unfortunately for me I had a broken car from the beginning after someone hit me from the back."

At last year's Malaysian Grand Prix, Trulli was second to claim the first podium finish for Toyota, a success Gascoyne thinks they can repeat again soon.

"I think if we'd planned a different strategy with Ralf, we could have qualified him fourth and today he would have been racing for a podium," he said.

"That's all ifs and we have to do it, but if you look at our race pace, it's very close to Ferrari and I'm sure they think they're going to score some podiums and so should we."