Trulli eyes Maiden win

Jarno Trulli’s stunning drive through the field in the United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis has rekindled Toyota’s dreams of a maiden victory this season.

The Italian started yesterday’s race from the pit lane after a suspension failure in qualifying but brushed that handicap aside to take fourth.

He only narrowly missed out on pipping Renault’s Giancarlo Fisichella to third place in a race dominated by Ferrari, Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa recording a comfortable one-two.

Trulli’s heroics have convinced team principal Tsutomu Tomita Toyota could still win their first grand prix this year.

He said: “Our pace shows that we are getting nearer to the top cars. We must now push to continue our development programme so we can catch them.

“We haven’t given up on our aim of winning our first race this season.”

Trulli arrived in North America without a point to his name after an unfortunate start to the season, but leaves with eight and his ambitions rekindled.

“I’m the kind of person who always wants more, so we’re disappointed to have narrowly missed out on the podium,” he said.

“But after everything that has gone wrong for me this year, it’s great to have a day when everything goes right. Now I’m really confident for the rest of the season.”

Team-mate Ralf Schumacher was also encouraged by Toyota’s progress but urged them to improve their reliability after being robbed of fifth.

The German pulled into the pits 10 laps from the end with a wheel bearing failure and he said: “Our performance this weekend shows that the development of our car is very advanced.

“But we need to keep pushing for reliability as we search for more points in the coming races.”

Another team heading back to Europe with a smile on their faces is Scuderia Toro Rosso, who broke their points duck in Formula One thanks to Vitantonio Liuzzi.

A high rate of attrition – including an eight-car pile-up on the first lap - left only nine cars to take the chequered flag and Liuzzi pipped Williams’ Nico Rosberg to the last point.

Further up the road, Fernando Alonso saw his championship lead cut to 19 points over Michael Schumacher with fifth place while Honda’s Rubens Barrichello was sixth and Red Bull’s David Coulthard seventh.