Trulli magnificent

Magny-Cours 2004 was a defining moment in the career of Jarno Trulli, just weeks after his win in Monaco, where he held off the advances of Jenson Button.

The Italian was running in third place in the French GP, and since team-mate and pole man Fernando Alonso had lost the lead to Michael Schumacher, a double podium finish would have been most welcome for Flavio Briatore in front of Renault's top brass.

But within sight of the chequered flag, there was an inexplicable lapse of concentration from Jarno, and Rubens Barrichello cheekily nipped past to claim the position.

Afterwards Briatore wasted no time in criticising his driver to the media, and more importantly, he also told Jarno exactly what he thought. It was the beginning of the end, and in September, the Italian left Renault, his Monaco triumph already a distant memory.

Fast-forward four years, and last weekend Trulli was again running third in the closing laps Magny-Cours. This time his pursuer was Heikki Kovalainen, a charger with a point to prove and a much quicker car than the Toyota that Trulli had at his disposal.

Kovalainen tried everything he knew, getting alongside more than once and even rubbing wheels with his rival. This time Trulli made it stick, but the '04 disaster was not far from his thoughts.

Rubens Barrichello takes 3rd place from Jarno Trulli on the final lap of the 2004 French Grand Prix © LAT

"Yes, obviously this came through my mind," he recalled after the flag. "But this pushed me, because I wanted to get my revenge. Today was probably a more difficult condition, because I was generally slower, especially on the straight line. It wasn't easy at all. I took my revenge, and I showed I learned from my mistake."

So did he expect any congratulations from Flavio?

"Well, I dedicate it to him, because he has been so good to criticise me at that time ..."

There was a lot of emotion involved in the result, for it came of course just a few days after the death of Toyota Motorsport founder Ove Andersson. Alighting from the car, Trulli made sure that the TV cameras saw the black bands on the TF108 and his own arm.

So where did that result come from - a Toyota third on a day when 19 cars finished? Well of course first we have to acknowledge the fact that both McLaren drivers were penalised, so his true position was arguably fifth. But he beat everybody else fair and square, including Montreal winner Robert Kubica.

In an era when reliability is generally exceptionally good, it's all about taking your chances when they are presented, as Trulli did back in Malaysia. His fourth place behind Kimi Raikkonen, Kubica and Kovalainen was less heralded, but on a day when Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa had problems, he was right there.

Trulli's qualifying pace has never been in question, and he's been a top 10 regular this season. In France he was fifth, which became fourth when Hamilton was moved back. The race was to show that he was a full five laps of fuel heavier than Alonso, who was immediately ahead, and he stopped at the same time as Kubica, who was behind. In other words it was a pretty good effort.

Last year starts were a major weakness of Toyota, and time after time Trulli lost places off the line, wasting his qualifying efforts. Inevitably, some criticism was pointed at him (even by team-mate Ralf Schumacher), although at that time starts were largely down to software.

This year there's more driver input of course, but Toyota has also massively improved its side of things, and recently the red and white cars have been getting away well.

Crucially in France an aggressive Jarno sprinted ahead of Alonso - bear in mind too that he was carrying those extra kilos - and against most people's expectations he pulled away from everybody else and kept the Ferraris in sight for quite a while.

Jarno Trulli battles with Fernando Alonso and Robert Kubica at the start of the 2008 French Grand Prix © LAT

"Obviously the start was a great thing, it gave us a good advantage because I knew that I could pull away from the Renault and the others, and I knew I had a bit of pace. But I didn't know how much I could hold the rest of the field up - especially McLaren and BMW, because they've always been stronger than us.

"But in the end I think pushing from the first lap gave me quite a good advantage to hold them up at the end of the race. Our weakest point as usual was straight-line speed, and unfortunately on the straight line there is very little that the driver can do to hold the others up, so I was just trying to push as hard as possible through the midfield corners, and then trying to pull away and hold them up at the end of the straight.

"I had to push from the first to the last lap, and I did really well. Together with the team I'm really happy, because they did a really good job in handling the strategy, the pit stops.

"Obviously we benefited from some circumstances yesterday, but nevertheless I did fifth fastest lap in qualifying, so we were doing a good job anyway. Then at the start I gained one more position. I did my best all through the race, I kept pushing and kept my pace really high considering the car performance."

For a while it looked as though he might be in a position to reel in the struggling Raikkonen for second, but the Finn did a great job to adjust to his new circumstances, and Trulli remained at safe distance.

Trulli had his own hands full when Kovalainen caught up. Their little battle, reminiscent of Kovalainen's desperate duel with Raikkonen in the wet at Fuji last year, did much to shake off Trulli's image as a quick guy who can't actually race.

"It was difficult, because when you are slower car, and you are fighting with someone who is much quicker, it's difficult, and you don't know where to go. And you have to keep extremely cool and keep up the speed, and I did my job.

"It was tough because he was much quicker than me on lap time, but especially on the straights. I had to go through my mind, with all my experience of 20 years of racing, in order to put him always in the wrong place, and I did it.

"Everyone is telling me that we banged wheels, but I don't think so. I don't know, but even if we slightly touched, it's just our job. I mean it was wheel to wheel, and nothing happened honestly. I kept my inside line, he went on the outside, I think it was quite OK. To be honest I didn't feel a bang.

"It was a nice fight, nice probably to watch on TV, but not so easy to handle from inside, because the pressure was really high. But as I say I used all my experience in order to get a good result.

Jarno Trulli holds off Heikki Kovalainen for 3rd place at Magny-Cours © XPB

"I was happy and obviously very exhausted at the end, because I was trying to keep it quick and keep the car on the track because it was a bit raining. I had all the hard things to handle, and I was not in a comfortable position. But I proved that the experience and speed is still with me."

He certainly did a lot to bolster his image in the paddock. To a large degree he recovered from the Renault frustrations with several podium finishes in 2005, but the 'Trulli train' jibes that year did him no favours. Over the last two seasons he was frustrated by an inconsistent car in which he had little confidence. In contrast the TF108 has allowed him to step up a gear.

"I drove very well, I'm driving better than ever at the moment, thanks to the team which has given me a very competitive car. All I'm asking is that the Toyota team pushes harder in order to get a quicker car, because this gives a big push to everyone.

"I think today it's down to a great job from everybody, because we have done an extremely good job all weekend. We know that we cannot fight for podiums basically, but we know that every time, every race, a remote chance. But you have to be there, and all weekend we've been there.

"After qualifying there was something on my mind. I knew that we could do it, I knew that it would be really, really hard, and eventually, we did it.

"Thanks to mechanics for great pit stops, the team on the pit wall did a great strategy. It was a perfect weekend and I did very good driving, so I'm very happy for myself and the team, and for Ove Andersson, because we are paying tribute to him."

There's a different spirit in the team after a couple of difficult years. How much of that is due to the departure of Ralf - who never quite shared his brother's ability to inspire those around him - is hard to judge. Certainly the rather more cheerful Timo Glock has been something of a breath of fresh air.

"Timo is very quick and he's pushing me very hard, and we are having exactly the same feeling, the same comments, and this helps the team in order to move ahead."

The German is of course GP2 champion, challenged Hamilton in 2006, and was highly rated as a tester by BMW. And yet he's often been left in Trulli's wake this year, aside from a great effort in Montreal.

Timo Glock © LAT

That has given a lot of people food for thought, and caused them to reassess Trulli's ability. He has outlasted Schumacher - who is a year younger - and it seems that at 34, his career has a new lease of life.

Few folk probably noticed that France was Jarno's fifth score in eight races, and those points have been quietly adding up. He's just 10 behind Nick Heidfeld and two behind Kovalainen.

Those guys will no doubt remain ahead, but Jarno is now equal with Mark Webber (and technically ahead because of his third place), so he's leading the fight for seventh place, or best of the rest, behind the title contending teams. It could have been even better.

"I've lost a lot of points because of bad luck I must say, at least five or six points. Nevertheless it was good to keep scoring points after a few hard seasons with a difficult car."

"Nowadays we have a more competitive car, with a better balance. I said that straight away during the winter time. And the team is much more together, this year we have a nice atmosphere."