Trulli not thinking of podiums yet

Jarno Trulli thinks that Toyota cannot expect much more than the fourth place he delivered at last weekend`s Malaysian Grand Prix for now.

The Italian put in one of Toyota`s strongest performances for years, as he held off Lewis Hamilton in the closing stages at Sepang.

But although there was an outside chance of a podium had he not got tangled up with Nick Heidfeld at the first corner, Trulli thinks the Sepang result is the maximum that Toyota can achieve at the moment.

“As I said during the end of the winter time testing, this is the result we can expect when we do a great job, when we get the car right in the right place and with the right conditions,” he said.

“This is at the moment what we can do. The others are a little bit out of reach, although Malaysia showed that in certain conditions, when we get everything right, we can get some benefit.”

Although Toyota are one of only two teams to have tested at Bahrain this year, Trulli thinks that the team will not benefit so much from that experience in the next race.

“Bahrain is a difficult circuit because there are long straights and we lose a bit of time on the straights,” he said. “We still have to improve our car performance there, but in general I think we can fight for the top six or seven.

“Anyway, I believe this year we have the car to fight and this is a great result because with last year`s car I could not do it.”

25.3.2008   ▪ Formula One    ▪ Trulli    ▪ www.autosport.com