Toyota Target Points despite Slow Start

Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli could only set the 18th and 19th quickest times respectively as both struggled with the balance of their revised TF105B cars.

Schumacher, who scored his first pole position for Toyota in Japan last weekend, admitted there was still some work to do, but claimed the Japanese squad were still aiming to score on Sunday.

"It's nice to be back here in China," said Schumacher. "I like the circuit but just like last year it was very dirty to start with until the rubber started to go down. I had some understeer so we still have quite a lot of work to do on our set-up for tomorrow.

"But our target is to push for a good slot in qualifying, then hopefully to have another decent race and to score points."

Trulli, who missed last year's inaugural race in China, enjoyed his first outing at the circuit, but like Schumacher he too was unhappy with his car's balance.

"This is my first time here at Shanghai and I've been impressed both by the city and by the facilities here," said Trulli. "Of course that means I had to learn the circuit today but I was able to put in a lot of laps before my late stop with a suspected clutch problem this afternoon.

"I'm not entirely happy with the balance so we will have to look closely at that overnight."