Toyota still aiming to win this season

The Japanese squad are beginning to pick the pace after a dismal start to their season.

Italian driver Jarno Trulli scored points for the second consecutive race after charging back from the back of the field to finish in a season-best fourth place.

Teammate Ralf Schumacher, who has scored the team's best result so far this season with a third place, looked set to finish in fifth before being hit by a wheel bearing failure.

Team principal Tsutomu Tomita was pleased with the result, and claimed Toyota's goal of winning their first race this season remains unchanged.

"For Toyota, Jarno made an exceptional race from the pitlane," said Tomita. "But he was confident before the race because our car was obviously fast this weekend. We went for a one-stop strategy because he was starting so far back and our Bridgestone tyres looked so consistent.

"Everything went well for him - including the accident and the safety car period - but his pace was very strong throughout the race even on heavy fuel loads. In the end we were fighting Fisichella and though we lost third by a couple of seconds we are very happy. Of course it hurts that we had another retirement with Ralf.

"It's a pity that he had a wheel bearing failure because he ran a very good race. Despite the fact that he was held up behind Barrichello early he was still able to pass Alonso at the last stop. So we need to work hard to improve our reliability. But our pace shows that we are getting nearer to the top cars.

"We must now push to continue our development programme so we can catch them. We haven't given up on our aim of winning our first race this season."

Toyota have scored only 16 points so far and are currently sixth in the standings.