Toyota to continue hunt for points in Spain

The Japanese manufacturer looked fast throughout winter testing, but was hit by a succession of reliability problems in the first three races of the season. With the team appearing to have overcome these problems at Imola, team principal Ove Andersson wants to push ahead and score points in Spain.

"We showed good signs of speed and overall performance at the Barcelona circuit in pre-season testing, and following out double finish in Imola two weeks' ago, I think we can look to the Spanish Grand Prix with championship points as a realistic target," said Andersson. "Things are coming together for us now after a rocky start to our 2003 campaign. As each race goes by, I can see that we are improving in every area."

Despite the team's poor start to the season, lead driver Olivier Panis remains upbeat. "It was frustrating to finish the San Marino GP in ninth place, just out of the points, but a two-car finish proves that we have the reliability again, which has boosted team morale.

"Like most other teams, we have done a lot of testing at the Catalunya track and the efforts of the whole team continue to impress me, so I am hopeful we can make an important step forward in Barcelona this weekend by qualifying in the top ten and finishing the race in the points."