The European Grand Prix today saw Allan McNish claim 14th place for Toyota at the Nürburgring. Mika Salo suffered handling problems for most of the race and retired nine laps from the end with suspected gearbox trouble.

"I had some small traction problems at the beginning, but things soon got better and the car was running quite well," commented McNish in a press release.

"There was a problem with the front left tyre on my first stop, losing me about 6 seconds. My shoulder was extremely painful due to a new seat in the car. The pain was so intense after my second stop it is a miracle I finished the race at all.

"Only tomorrow will I know whether I can test next week, but I tell you one thing I am not going to miss my home Grand Prix in Silverstone!"

"We agreed to take a chance on a one-stop strategy, but during the race we realised the tyres we chose were suffering from the heavy fuel load," Salo explained.

"This caused handling problems, which is why I went off a couple of times and lost positions. I had to come in earlier than scheduled for my stop for this reason and then had to stop again later to change tyres again. I think my retirement was a gearbox-related problem, but we have to do further checks before we can be sure."

Team president Ove Andersson added: "I have mixed feelings at the moment. I am pleased that Allan made it home after our recent failures to finish. Having said that I thought we would have been stronger in the race following a good qualifying session yesterday. We have to look now to next week's test to find a solution to the problems we encountered today."

Toyota test at Paul Ricard next week from Wednesday to Friday.