Toyota frustrated by Trulli's tactics

The Japanese car manufacturer had secured the second row of the grid at Suzuka and looked set for one of their most competitive showings of the season.

But their afternoon was hurt when Trulli lost a lot of time after his second stop with tyre graining - which compromised the pace of the faster Schumacher, who was stuck behind him and could not find a way past. The pair duly finished sixth and seventh.

The team believe, however, that Schumacher could have beaten both Jenson Button in fourth and Kimi Raikkonen in fifth if he had been let through immediately.  And those lost points have left senior team members angry, especially because Trulli ignored three calls on the radio to move over.

The source told Autosport: "It was a very difficult situation for us because, in the later stages of the race, Ralf was clearly the faster driver and definitely had the pace to finish fourth. But Jarno just wouldn't pull over. It has definitely cost us points."

Trulli said after the race that his pace was slow because of tyre issues, but that the team should have been happy for both cars to finish in the points.

"I had several problems and struggled with my last set of tyres - particularly for the first 10 laps," he explained. "The most important thing is that we both scored points."