Brazilian GP - Toyota - RaceTimo Glock unwittingly decided who would be the 2008 Formula One World champion. He and the Toyota team gambled and stayed on track in the closing stages of the Brazilian Grand Prix and running fourth at the start of the final lap, it seemed
that Felipe Massa would be the champion.
Glock however was struggling mightily on the dry weather tyres as the rain continued to fall. The final turn of the final lap saw both Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton breeze by with ease and the title fell to the McLaren driver. Glock took the chequered flag in sixth position and ends his first full season tenth in the championship standings.
Jarno Trulli started on the front row of the grid, but in the wet conditions early in the race suffered a half spin at turn two and dropped down the order. The Italian would finish in eighth position and pick up the final point, but drops to ninth position in the standings behind Toro Rosso racer Vettel.
Toyota end the season in fifth position with 56 points.
Timo Glock
"I was on dry tyres at the end of the race when it was raining quite badly and it was just impossible on the last lap. I was fighting as hard as I could but it was so difficult to just keep the car on the track and I lost positions right at the end of the lap. Finishing in the top six is a decent result for me because I'd been struggling with the car earlier in the weekend but we were very close to fourth place so I am a bit disappointed."
"It's the end of my first season with Toyota and I'm happy with it as a whole.
It was not easy for me early on but we improved the car a lot and I also improved myself during the year. Since Hockenheim it's been positive for me; beating my target of 20 points and finishing on the podium as well is a good achievement. Now we have to work even harder for next year to make another step forward."
Jarno Trulli"It was an eventful race. We had a good start and the first laps were pretty good, when I was following Felipe Massa. It started to dry up and we went for dry tyres. Unfortunately I got stuck behind Fisichella who was much slower than me. I didn't have the top speed to overtake him so I lost a lot of time over those laps."
"As soon as I got away from him I was one of the quickest on the track, I was recovering quite a lot and closing the gap to the guys in front but it was not enough. When it rained we took the choice to stay on dry tyres and we got a point. Having started second we missed an opportunity but overall we have done a good championship and I am pretty happy with that. Now we are aiming to make even bigger progress for next year. Finally I would like to say that my five years working with Richard Cregan has been fantastic and I wish him all the best with his new career."
Tadashi Yamashina, Team Principal
"It's good to finish the season with both cars in the points even if that was a mixed day for us. Timo drove very well and his strategy paid off in these uncertain conditions. He stayed out on dry tyres at the end but just failed to hold on to fourth place. Clearly we came in with high hopes for Jarno after his excellent qualifying yesterday but the weather didn't work in his favour. There was a problem at his first pit stop and he lost some time, so that cost him position. He did well to score a point in difficult conditions."
"Overall it is good to finish a positive season for us with a double points finish. We are happy with the progress we have made but our ambitions are higher than this and we want to make more progress. Now we can head into the winter with confidence that we can take another step in 2009."
