page_title: Toyota Racing (Formula One team)
section_title: 2008
hierarchical_section_title: Toyota Racing (Formula One team) / Racing history / 2007–2009: Association with Williams and final seasons / 2008
caption_attribution_description: Timo Glock driving for Toyota F1 at the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix.
context_page_description: Panasonic Toyota Racing was a Formula One team owned by the Japanese automobile manufacturer Toyota Motor Corporation and based in Cologne, Germany. Toyota announced their plans to participate in Formula One in 1999, and after extensive testing with their initial car, dubbed the TF101, the team made their debut in 2002. The new team grew from Toyota's long-standing Toyota Motorsport GmbH organisation, which had previously competed in the World Rally Championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Despite a point in their first-ever race, Toyota never won a Grand Prix, their best finish being 2nd position, which they achieved five times.
  Toyota drew criticism for their lack of success, as they never managed to win with one of the sport's biggest budgets. Toyota was a well-funded team, but despite this, strong results had never been consistent.
  On 4 November 2009, Toyota announced its immediate withdrawal from Formula One, ending the team's involvement in the sport after eight consecutive seasons.
context_section_description: While retaining Jarno Trulli, Toyota replaced Ralf Schumacher with reigning GP2 champion Timo Glock for the 2008 season. The team's new car, the Toyota TF108, was launched on 10 January 2008. The team's first points came in Sepang, where Jarno Trulli qualified in 5th place (albeit being promoted to 3rd following the McLaren team being penalised) and went on to finish the race in 4th. This proved not to be a one off, with Trulli getting 6th place next time out in Bahrain, and then 8th in Spain after some late-race trouble. After retiring in the opening two rounds followed by mid-field finishes, Timo Glock was able to secure a 4th place and 5 points for Toyota at Montreal, in addition to Trulli's 3 points brought Toyota up 5th place in the Constructor's standings. Each car led the race at some point. More points were to follow at France, where Trulli managed to hold off Heikki Kovalainen in the late race stages to collect 3rd place. This was Toyota's first podium finish in over two years. Trulli dedicated this podium to former team boss Ove Andersson, who died in the week prior to the race, in a car accident. Trulli scored points in the British Grand Prix, but despite a solid showing during most of the race in Germany, neither driver scored points; Glock suffered a rear suspension failure that caused a spectacular crash, while Trulli was passed in the later stages of the race. The team's fortunes looked up in Hungary, where Glock put in a good qualifying run that ultimately led to a second-place finish in the race, giving him his first F1 podium and Toyota's second podium finish of the season. At the next race in Valencia, Jarno Trulli was able to gather a 5th-place finish while teammate Glock fought his way up to 7th.  This result put Toyota ten points ahead of Renault in the constructors' standings.
  At the next race in Belgium Trulli struggled, only being able to finish 16th, as his gearbox was damaged in a collision with Sébastien Bourdais' Toro Rosso on the first lap. Timo Glock, on the other hand, was doing as badly as Trulli until a few laps before the end of the race the rain came down. Glock changed to wet tyres, and was able to move up the order to 8th place. After the race, however, Glock was penalised 25-seconds for overtaking Mark Webber under yellow flags during the final lap of the race. The penalty pushed Glock to ninth place.
  The next race took the team to Italy where they qualified well – Trulli 7th and Glock 9th. However, they were only able to manage 11th and 13th respectively in the race.
  In Singapore Toyota again qualified well, Glock 8th and Trulli 11th. Trulli retired from the race with transmission problems, but Glock went on to finish 4th.
  At the Japanese Grand Prix Glock retired on lap 7 with a mechanical failure, after hitting debris from David Coulthard's crash. However, Jarno Trulli did very well, finishing 5th.
  In the 2008 Chinese Grand Prix Trulli was again involved in an incident with Sébastien Bourdais on lap 1, this time forcing him out of the race. Glock meanwhile maintained his strong late-season form, scoring two points for 7th place.
  Meanwhile, in the dramatic 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix the Toyotas were the only cars to stay out on dry tyres in the torrential rainstorm in the closing stages of the race, and that had a significant factor on deciding the destiny of the world title. Trulli had qualified 2nd, but both he and Glock faded to 6th and 8th respectively at the finish, Glock relinquishing the vital fifth place to Lewis Hamilton on the final lap, which was enough for the McLaren driver to seal the world title by a point from local hero and race winner Felipe Massa. Afterwards, Glock denied conspiracy claims that he gave the place to Hamilton, citing that he was struggling for grip on the wet track surface and that there was absolutely nothing he could do.
  Toyota finished 2008 with 56 points, a vast improvement on their 2007 total of 13. The team finished the year ranked 5th, improving from their 2007 standing of 6th.
caption: Timo Glock at the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix.
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