[Racer Duck]

Date 2008-01-16
By J.K. Thompson - Motorsport.com

Toyota's Timo Glock ended a week of Formula One testing in Jerez, Spain, Wednesday with his team's best showing -- top time -- as scattered rain showers interrupted runs and disrupted all teams' test schedules through most of the day.

With the exception of Scuderia Toro Rosso, whose Sebastian Vettel went off to end his day's testing, and McLaren, whose Lewis Hamilton was credited with two off-track excursions, teams were not forthcoming about who went off or how many times as drivers continued to adapt to cars in the wet without traction control. Red flags stopped testing several times before the track dried completely in late afternoon.

The only driver to get under the 1-minute, 20-second mark, Glock posted a 1:19.779 in 96 laps in the TF108/02. He was followed by Hamilton in the McLaren Mercedes MP4-23 at 1:20.099 in 73 laps, then Fernando Alonso driving last year's Renault, an R27-06, to 1:20.363 in 49 laps.

"I am pleased with our progress today, and I believe we have made some significant improvements to the new car," Glock said. "It is encouraging to see us end the day with the fastest lap, and I think we made a step forward. Once again the car was extremely reliable and that allowed us to complete a lot of laps and gather plenty of information."

His quick time giving reason for early hope for a turnaround in the misfortunes of the high-dollar, low-reward Japanese team, yet to bag a victory in five seasons, Glock said the TF108 is "a completely different car" to the TF107 and conceded he spun in the morning after making a mistake, allowing that the off didn't cost much time.

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