Trulli: Winter test conditions didn't favour us.

As usual, the Nurburgring managed to throw a weather-related curve ball at the majority of the Formula One field, defying its July slot on the calendar to produce cold, windy and, occasionally, wet conditions to make a mockery of the settings teams had expected to run.

While Brawn and Ferrari both showed signs of struggling in the circumstances - with Jenson Button notably weaving down the straights in an effort to get some heat into the tyres on his BGP001 - locally-based Toyota also saw its weekend derailed, with Jarno Trulli and German team-mate Timo Glock both longing for a rise in temperature.

"The weather was more like a winter test, with very low track temperatures and some rain, which didn't help us," the Italian veteran admitted, "Our car works best in warmer conditions so, when we saw the weather forecast for the weekend, we knew it wouldn't be ideal for us, and that's how it turned out."

Although free practice on Friday produced positive results, with Trulli fifth fastest overall, Saturday's qualifying proved more disappointing, with Glock resigned to the last row of the grid, and the Italian failing to make the top ten shoot-out for just the second time this season.

"I was quite happy with our performance in practice, as we were in the top six in both Friday sessions, which gave me confidence," Trulli confirmed, "Of course, it's difficult to know exactly where you stand after Friday, because you don't know what programmes the other guys are running, but I was quite hopeful. Apart from Monaco, I have always been in Q3 this year and fighting for the top six, so that was the target again.

"In the end, however, the conditions were very unfortunate for us and a few minutes of rain ruined qualifying for me. There was no problem getting through Q1, but the weather in Q2 was really changeable and, in those conditions, it is always a risk when it comes to tyre choice. There was a very small window towards the end of Q2 when it wasn't raining and the track was in reasonable condition, but we were just a little bit too late going on to the option tyres and it started raining again.

"After that, we needed to understand what the weather would do [on race day]. On Saturday, it looked like we would have a wet race, but the rain came on Sunday morning and the conditions for the race were okay, even though it was still quite cold. From 14th [on the grid], it is hard to have high expectations, but we know our car is fundamentally competitive so I was determined to fight as hard as possible and try to make up some places."

As it happened, Trulli's race ruined further as the field attempted to negotiate the opening corner where, with Mark Webber and Rubens Barrichello having already bounced off each other, and Lewis Hamilton suffering a puncture after clipping the Australian's front wing endplate, there was some confusion deeper in the pack.

"As usual at the N?rburgring, the first few corners were really tight and there was a lot of fighting for position," Trulli revealed, "When you start in the middle of the field, it is always pretty hectic, but everything was fine until another car flew past me and bounced over my front wing. I could feel there was something wrong, even though I couldn't actually see the damaged part, so we had to pit for a new one.

"Obviously, it is extremely difficult to get anything from a race when you have to make an extra pit-stop. Immediately after the pit-stop, I was quite quick and, if you look at the lap times, mine were actually as fast as, or faster than, several of the cars in the top six, so I caught up with the back of the field really quickly. But then I was stuck in traffic for the whole race, which gave me no chance to get a decent result."

Posting the second fastest lap of the race only added to Trulli's frustration, but provide some optimism as the F1 circus heads towards the usually warmer climes of Budapest.

"We can expect the temperatures to be a lot better than the N?rburgring, that's for sure," he smiled, "That should suit us well because, generally, our car is more competitive in warm weather. In the past, we have done well in Hungary, but every year is different, so I don't know exactly what to expect. We are certainly pushing as hard as we can and the car has a lot more potential than the results in N?rburgring showed."