Toyota Encouraged by Promising Start

The Toyota team were encouraged with the start of their San Marino Grand Prix weekend following Friday's practice sessions.

"That was a useful and encouraging start of the European season," said technical director Mike Gascoyne after the end of the day. "We have struggled here in the past because a quick lap time means that you have to use the kerbs, which has previously been a problem for us.

"However, today the TF104 handled that better and the balance of the car was reasonable. During both sessions we worked on evaluating the two tyres. Actually both compounds are quite close here, so we will have to look deeper into the data this afternoon.

"Overall, a bit better than we expected - a good, solid day."

Frenchman Olivier Panis was the quickest of the Toyota trio in action today, the veteran driver finishing as 13th quickest ahead of his Brazilian teammate Cristiano da Matta, who wound up 14th.

Test driver Ricardo Zonta, who suffered a mechanical problem in the second session, was 19th quickest.