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Kobayashi Has 80 Percent Chances of Toyota Seat - Howett

Kamui Kobayashi scored his maiden points in Formula One at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, at only his second outing in the championship. The Japanese driver majestically got things done on Sunday, as his sole duty during the weekend was to make sure Timo Glock's absence from the Toyota garage would remain unnoticed.

And he did just that, managing to finish the race in 6th place and, more importantly, ahead of his teammate and F1 veteran Jarno Trulli. At one point, the Japanese driver was even driving for a place on the podium, but his mid-race pit stop dropped him further down the pack and he eventually had to settle for 3 points.

With the economic regression clearly affecting Toyota's F1 budget for the upcoming years, the Cologne officials must be considering cheaper solutions for 2010. Trulli and Glock were both offered extensions to their deals for the upcoming season, but Kobayashi's latest performance might change things a little but before the winter break.

It has been quite a while since Japan had a homegrown talent fight for a podium and drive so aggressively for positions inside Formula One. Now that Kobayashi proved himself wonderfully in Brazil and Japan, Toyota's president John Howett admitted he has a good chance of making the official lineup in 2010.

We have to really seriously consider him now after this good strong result. I think it's a definite lesson that sometimes we all should be braver in our driver choices and not go for the safer, risk-hedged decision,” said Howett. When asked how would he rate Kobayashi's chances of making a full-season appearance for Toyota next season, Howett said it's in the vicinity of 80 percent.

Toyota have tried to sign Robert Kubica and Kimi Raikkonen for the past few months, but both have been unavailable due to different reasons. The Pole was given a better one-year deal with Renault, while the Finn asked for too much money for a multi-year deal.

Toyota's board of executive will meet in mid-November to decide their future plans in Formula One, which is the reason why the Cologned based team is unable to sign any drivers for their 2010 campaign.
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