Rate it! Trulli qualified on pole position in the desert kingdom &ndash his and Toyota’s first since the shambolic 2005 US Grand Prix at
Indianapolis &ndash but would ultimately take the chequered flag third after the Cologne-based outfit misguidedly elected to fit Bridgestone’s lesser-favoured medium compound tyres to both cars during the long middle stint. “To be honest, I was disappointed because qualifying went so well and expectations were high that we could challenge for Toyota’s first victory,” the Pescara native confessed. “Saturday was a great feeling. It was not an easy qualifying session for me because we had a little issue with the brakes, but I knew I had car which was quick enough to challenge for pole position so I never gave up. It was great for the team, and personally it was a good feeling to be back on pole position. “I expected more than third place [in the race] but it wasn’t to be unfortunately, although I did set the fastest lap of the race which shows the potential of the car. I lost a position to Timo at the start because of a small oil spillage which meant the engine didn’t pull away as well as it should have. Obviously it would have been better to be leading, but I had quite a dramatic battle with Lewis we were wheel-to-wheel so it was exciting, and I kept second place. “The car was feeling pretty good and I set the fastest lap of the race on lap ten, but at my first stop we went with the medium tyres and on those I was just defending against cars lighter than me on the super-soft tyres. The other guys at the front waited until the final stint to use the medium tyres, and in hindsight that was probably the right decision. I had Sebastian right behind me and at the final stop he got past. We went on to the super-soft tyres and I was faster than him I pushed as hard as I could but just couldn’t overtake. “It didn’t work out for us, but we still had a good race and finished on the podium. To be disappointed with third place makes such a difference compared to the previous few seasons. Last year my third place at Magny-Cours was a really special moment, and the season before it was pretty much impossible to get near the podium so you can see that we have made a really big step this year. We have three podiums already from four races, and that is the same number we had from the previous three seasons combined.”
“Everyone in the team has worked so hard on this car,” the 34-year-old underlined, “and now we are seeing the rewards. In Formula 1 you have to push as hard as you can at all times and we have never given up fighting, so our improvement is really down to hard work from everyone. You need experience as well, though, and after seven seasons in Formula 1, Toyota is much more experienced so we understand more how to make the car quick and get the best out of it.