Toyota Encouraged by New Car's Pace

Toyota's team principal Tsutomu Tomita said the Japanese squad were encouraged with the performance of the revised car introduced at this weekend's German Prix.

"It was a problematic and extremely disappointing race result for Toyota today, but I think we can take a lot of positive things away after the first race weekend with our revised TF104B car," said Tomita after a race in which neither Olivier Panis or Cristiano da Matta managed to score.

"We had the pace to score some points today, as we can see from setting the fourth fastest lap of the race. The TF104B showed a really encouraging pace and both drivers set competitive lap times when they had a clear track.

"All in all, we are disappointed that we could not score the points we deserved, but at the same time we should be pleased with the car's performance at this weekend's German Grand Prix."

The start of the race was delayed after French veteran Panis waved his hands frantically on the grid as the lights were about to change. The Toyota driver had to take the restart from the back of the grid, and then went on to finish in a disappointing 14th position.

Brazilian da Matta retired from the race after spinning when his rear left tyre deflected.