Toyota's revised car flies

Toyota's heavily revised TF104B was introduced for the previous grand prix in Germany, but drivers errors and technical problems made it impossible to assess the car's true potential.

"The car felt really good," the Frenchman said, "we were competitive on used and new tyres and my best time was set with a representative fuel load, so I'm optimistic that we can show the true potential of the TF104B in Hungary."

Since Mike Gascoyne's updated car made its race debut at Hockenheim three weeks ago, Toyota has replaced Cristiano da Matta with test driver Ricardo Zonta for the remainder of the season, with Australian test driver Ryan Briscoe taking over Zonta's third car role on Fridays.

"Ricardo has done a strong job all year, while Cristiano struggled in qualifying a little bit," explained Gascoyne. "And considering that you race where you qualify, we thought we'd give Ricardo a chance."

Zonta finished Friday practice 18th position, on 1m22.808s, while Briscoe was 21st on 1m23.170s. Neither time was representative, however.

"I made a mistake on a hot lap with new tyres," Zonta admitted, "and so I know where the extra time is." Briscoe, meanwhile, explained: "I had a water leak on my car, which meant that I did my two longer runs but I didn't do my last two scheduled runs on new tyres, which would have produced a quicker time."

"It was a good, solid day," Gascoyne concluded. "Olivier had no problems and the competitiveness looks really good. We will probably see more of the car's potential in Hungary. We are always at maximum downforce here and the fact that our maximum is now significantly higher should be a significant benefit."