Super Aguri happy with Friday start

Super Aguri F1 made a good start to the 2006 Brazilian Grand Prix weekend at Interlagos today. The team completed its planned Friday testing programme with the team’s third driver, Franck Montagny, setting the 8th fastest time of the day on his last outing for the team, a 1:13.792.

“This is my last day with SUPER AGURI, so it is quite a special day. I was happy with the car during the final session and we finished 8th fastest. We completed two tyre tests in the afternoon because we had a problem this morning with the steering rack which caused us to cancel our first session. I think it's good because a top 10 finish shows everyone that the team is getting better and better. But there is a little bit of sadness because the guys here have been very good to me and I would like to thank them and Aguri for my great time with the team.”

“It was a good start to the weekend. We made good progress during both sessions and we felt comfortable with that. Interlagos is a bumpy track and always challenging for the drivers and demanding for the car set-up, but our car seems to be working well. I believe that we can carry over today’s progress to tomorrow.”

“It was not really a successful day for me because even though we had no issues this morning at the beginning of FP2 the car soon had a problem. This took a long time to fix and then we could only complete two timed laps, which is too short to determine good car balance. We haven’t collected a lot of data from my car, so we shall have to work hard to prepare for tomorrow.”

“I am happy with today’s practice sessions. Franck set another good time for us and finished in the top 10. He has done a great job for my team and I would like to thank him for his contribution this year. Taku also did a good job today; it is a shame that Sakon had some problems with his car, but overall Franck collected a good amount of data and so it is looking positive for tomorrow.”