Zonta: Toyota make progress on tyres

With the Japanese squad aware that their varied form in the first two races of the season owed much to the difference in track temperatures, much of their focus this week has been in ensuring that they can get on top of the difficulties they suffer in cooler conditions.

And after Zonta and teammate Jarno Trulli tried out a host of different tyre compounds to try and better understand their issues, there is a fresh mood of optimistism within the team about their situation.

"We have found some interesting things," Zonta told autosport.com. "Particularly when it was getting cooler we had this compound that worked really well, which is encouraging.

"I have stayed with the same set-up all day, as I have not had much time to change it, but it is good that we have these compounds and can work with lower temperatures. It's been a good test."

Toyota need to get on top of their troubles in cooler conditions as soon as possible, because the start of the European season will invariably bring weather colder than seen at the first three flyaways.