Trulli hopes for strong second half

The Italian driver was hit by a long streak of bad luck, which included a retirement from the Monaco Grand Prix while looking set to finish on the podium.

Trulli finally managed to open his points account in Canada, where he finished in sixth position.

"Points bring happiness. I'm not joking when I say that the season up to Canada was a real nightmare," the Italian told Gazzetta dello Sport. "There was not a single race where I didn't have problems, and this is also true for Montreal and Indianapolis anyway.

"At Indy I made a great start and it turned out to be a good race that was payback for so much misfortune. Although, inside me, I'm still upset about the podium missed at Monte Carlo with 11 laps to go."

Following Canada's result, Trulli continued with his positive run, completing a strong race at Indianapolis to finish in fourth despite having taken the start from the pitlane.

The Toyota driver is now hoping to keep his momentum going.

"Our team have great potential," he said. "You can have a season starting badly, but we've managed to recover the situation, we've fixed the reliability problems and now I have at hand a generally quick car.

"All that's left now is hoping the second part of the season will be a further improvement, starting from Sunday in Magny-Cours, where it would be nice to consolidate the progress shown in the last few races."