Toyota Aiming to Beat Ferrari

Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher claimed fifth and sixth places at Monza - which, allied to Ferrari's failure to get in the points, has left their Japanese manufacturer team just eighth points adrift of the reigning World Champions.

Trulli said: "Today was a fantastic race for me. I pushed right to the limit from the beginning to the end. The car balance wasn't too bad, but we struggled a bit with traction.

"I lost a couple of places early on when we weren't as quick down the straights as other lighter cars. But our car was as reliable as it has been all season. I didn't expect to be able to come home in fifth place so it was definitely a positive day.

"It's great for the team, too, and our total of seven points means we are now bearing down on Ferrari in the Constructors' Championship. We'll be really pushing to catch them."

Ralf Schumacher added: "That was another good result for us, and it's great to have taken 5th and 6th between us. It was quite a difficult race for me.

"I had trouble with grip so it was very slippery throughout the race. I was sliding a lot and I had both understeer and oversteer during the afternoon. It was especially hard on a heavy fuel load.

"Towards the end of the stints I could go at a decent pace. But the team again did a great job with the strategy and in the pitstops. So that basically moved me forward. Now maybe we have a chance to catch up with Ferrari."

Team principal Tsutomu Tomita believed the team had got everything out of the weekend that they could - and believed Ferrari's position was now under threat.

"That was a very good race for us," he said. "We were the third quickest team behind McLaren and Renault and I don't think we could have done any better. We were very happy with our race strategy.

"We lost a couple of places early on because other cars were running lighter than us. But our strategy was proved to be right because we ended up ahead of them at the flag. The points mean we are opening a gap to the teams behind us but more importantly we are making ground on Ferrari.

"Now we are only eight points behind with four races left. We are closing on them and we will push hard to catch them and make it into the top three. We will also continue to work hard on the technical side to close the gap in pace to the top two."