Toyota waits for Saturday

The updated car ran with its new aero package for the first time in Friday's free practice session, which the team effectively used as a test session on the new machine ahead of Saturday's two qualifying sessions.

The B-spec car made its track debut at last week's test at Jerez, but it didn't run with its new aero features.

Today gave the team the chance to run with the new configurations but while it seemed an improved car in the first session, in the second the drivers dropped down the order with test driver Ricardo Zonta setting the quickest time of the trio in 10th in the old TF104 while drivers Cristiano da Matta and Olivier Panis were 19th and 20th respectively in the uprated model.

According to Gascoyne, though, only old tyres were used in the second session making the team's times unrepresentative.

"With both race drivers, we opted to do our tyre comparison in the first session, which meant that we only ran on old tyres in the second practice," he said. "We should not read too much into the time differences between the TF104 and TF104B. We used the second hour effectively as a test session to improve the balance of the car and to improve the new aero package. We made good progress.

"Ricardo, meanwhile, carried out his normal programme of tyre evaluation in both sessions so we have concentrated on ensuring we are in as good shape as possible for tomorrow. That will be when we really see how competitive the updated car is."