Toyota team boss Tadashi Yamashina was delighted with Kamui Kobayashi's hard-charging drive in the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The debutant belied his total lack of Formula 1 racing experience to run in the top 10 early on, resolutely fending off world championship leader Jenson Button for the first 24 laps.
He lost ground as others ran longer before their pit stops, but fought back in the closing laps to take 10th from Giancarlo Fisichella's Ferrari with a determined late dive.
Yamashina reckoned Kobayashi has already made a big mark on F1 and marked himself out as a spectacular racer.
"He did a really good job, especially on a track he has never raced on before and after the difficult conditions earlier in the weekend," said the team chairman.
"As we have come to expect from him, he battled really hard and also put on an exciting show for the fans.
"It was particularly impressive to see him overtaking another car at the end of a hard race and I am proud of his efforts."
Kobayashi was also pleased, but admitted that the 71-lap race had been physically harder than he expected.
"It was a tough race for me," he said.
"As this was my grand prix debut I experienced a lot of things for the first time in Formula 1, so it was a learning experience.
"Physically it felt like a really long race and it was quite tough."
He was slightly disappointed not to stay in touch with the front-runners.
"My first target was to finish the race and I am pleased to achieve that, but after the start I was in a decent position to score points so I am a little disappointed I didn't," he said.
"The car felt good in the first stint but when I changed tyres the balance felt a different and I was struggling a bit; probably this was just down to experience.
"It was my first race so there are several areas to improve but overall I am happy with how I have performed this weekend and I would like to thank the team for all its support."
The only low point of Kobayashi's race was when his defensive tactics wiped the front wing off his countryman Kazuki Nakajima's Williams and sent the latter crashing into the barriers.
"We were having a good race until the accident, so I’m disappointed it ended this way," said Nakajima.
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