Q & A with Timo Glock

Q. What do you make of the track?

Timo Glock: The track so far looks quite interesting. A bit different to a normal street circuit like Monaco - quite long straights, good possibilities to overtake and quite big as well! It will be very interesting in an F1 car on the track tomorrow.

Q. Should the track suit Toyota?

TG: It depends. The positive thing is that we have soft tyres and hot conditions here, which is good for us. The track characteristics I'm not sure so far, because long straights are perhaps where we have struggled a little bit over the year in terms of top speed. We should wait and see. If it works out like in Budapest with the soft tyres and hot conditions then we should be ok.

Q. Do you think you've got a chance to be in the top four or five?

TG: It will be difficult. Every time we come to a track I'm not sure where we are because it's just so tight around the top ten. We just have to wait and see how it goes. It would be great for us to keep our momentum up. At Hockenheim too we had good pace, although the result didn't show it, but Budapest showed that we made another step and hopefully we can repeat it here.

Q. And for your personally, is the first podium finish a confidence boost?

TG: The confidence is definitely going up when you are on the podium for the first time, especially in my first full season. But at the end every race begins from zero and we have to keep working hard.

Q. You talked about the momentum increasing - how has the season gone for you, the car and the team?

TG: We just improved, I improved myself quite a lot through the year. The problem is the result doesn't always show that we progressed from race to race. In Budapest it showed what we can do when the car is just how I need it. So far it's just really good to see how we make steps in the right direction and it's just good fun.

Q. How has the car improved?

TG: Quite a lot. I struggled with understeer in the first couple of races and the feeling to the car was not 100 percent. It improved from race to race and now when I jump in the car its just how I need it. I hope we can keep that up and keep improving.

Q. What are your impressions of the team?

TG: It's a lot of fun. The team is a big team and every time when I come in it's fun to see the cars and work with the guys. They are all really motivated, especially with the podiums from Jarno Trulli and now from me. It gives the team a big boost.

Q. What are your impressions of Fuji?

TG: It's difficult to say when you have never driven the track. It looked good on TV, but every time you see a track on TV and then for real it is just completely different. I'm looking forward to the race because it is very special for Toyota.

Q. How about Shanghai?

TG: I raced there in 2004 for Jordan. The first sector is quite trick and quite good corners. The long straight line - it's just a good race track.

Q. The team has said you are definitely staying on next year, does that help with the confidence?

TG: Yes, but I knew that before when I signed my contract that I have a multi-year deal so I never had any doubts.

Q. But there was always a chance it wouldn't continue?

TG: Of course - if you don't give 100 percent and don't show the results it gets a bit difficult, but the results showed the performance and the team knows exactly what I'm doing and they are quite happy. From that point of view I don't know why these speculations came up.

Q. Will the team be in a position to win races in 2009?

TG: It's difficult to say. You never know how the rule changes will leave the teams. Hopefully we are in the position to keep our momentum into 2009 and keep getting stronger and stronger. To be in a position to win races next year would be great.

Q. How about winning races this year?

TG: It's difficult. We have to be realistic - McLaren and Ferrari are still quite a step ahead of us. When we have another crazy race everything is possible!