Timo Glock has virtually assured himself of retaining his Toyota drive in 2009 following a first podium finish in Hungary on Sunday.

The German impressed team bosses with his speed at the Hungaroring all weekend and is now expected to retain his partnership with senior driver Jarno Trulli for another season.

“We intend to keep both of our drivers,” said Toyota team chief John Howett. “I’m just happy that Timo had a really strong race here.

“Jarno would have had a stronger race if he hadn’t been caught behind Mark Webber because of a bad start. Overall I’m very happy we had a strong result.

“From the moment he drove out of the garage on Friday he has been on it all weekend here.

“If you really look at his sector times from qualifying earlier in the season, he was struggling to put a complete lap together but generally showing he had the speed to do it.

“He proved to himself in Hockenheim, particularly on race pace, how quick he was.”

MUMBAI: Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) has plans to scale up the production at its second plant to double in the near future, a top company official said.

“We intend to expand the capacity of our second plant from 1,00,000 units to 2,00,000 units in the near future,” Toyota Kirloskar Motor, Managing Director, Hiroshi Nakagawa told reporters on the sideline of the launch of its Traffic Safety Education Initiative here today.

TKM started production in its first plant at Bangalore in December 1999.

The foundation stone for the second plant at Bangalore was recently laid by Karnataka Chief Minister, B S Yedurappa.

Nakagawa said that the company was very much keen in India and was focussing on the Indian market.

On Toyota’s proposed ’strategic small car’, Nakagawa said,” If we succeed in India, we will launch it in other markets like Russia and Brazil etc,” he said.

The Japanese car maker has plans to launch the small car in the Indian market by 2010.

TKM, which is a joint venture between Japan’s Toyota Motor and India’s Kirloskar Group, currently produces the Corolla and IMV series of Innova (MUV) with a production of 60,000 vehicles in 2007.

Toyota Motor holds 89 per cent equity stake in TKM and Kirloskar Group the remaining 11 per cent.