Trulli: Toyota have a lot of work to do

The Japanese squad were the main underperformers in today's session, with German Ralf Schumacher missing the first cut and ending down in 17th position.

Trulli made it to the second qualifying session, but the Italian had to settle for 14th position.

"There wasn't a lot more that I could do out there today. In the first session I was on a quick lap when the red flag came out so I had to abandon that," said Trulli. "When we started again we hit traffic so it was not very quick but it was good enough to make it through.

"The two laps I put together in session two were both good laps and they were about as quick as I could have expected.

"From a driving perspective, the new qualifying system doesn't change very much in the first two sessions. You need the same kind of approach, putting together a lap when it matters with the track getting quicker all the time.

"Of course there is traffic that we didn't have last year so timing is important. Still, our performance shows that as a team we have a lot of work to do to make it up to the level of the top teams."

Schumacher blamed the red flag and then the traffic during the first session for his poor showing.

"It is obviously very disappointing that we just missed out on making it through session one today," said Schumacher. "I was just starting a flying lap when the red flags came out. Then, when everyone went out for their quick laps I was at the back of the pack. I just lost the temperature in the tyres and I couldn't warm up the tyre again before my lap.

"That meant that I was sliding around for most of the lap and I was not particularly surprised that I didn't make it through to the other sessions. A disappointing day, then, that confirms that we have hard work ahead to force our way up the grid.

"But it is very early in the season and the full picture of relative performance will only emerge after the first few races."