Strong performance from Davidson
Super Aguri F1 Team driver Anthony Davidson drove an astonishing lap to glide through into the second session of Qualifying today at Istanbul Park. Knocking on the door of the final Top Ten on the time sheet, Anthony will start tomorrow’s race from 11th position on the grid. Although happy with the car balance during the morning’s running, Takuma struggled to find grip during Qualifying and was unable to find the pace in his SA07 to join his teammate in Q2.
Takuma Sato “I was happy with the car balance during Free Practice and the car felt good. But in Qualifying, although the balance itself was fine, we were lacking the pace and I did not have good grip, so it is difficult to really understand what happened. It is disappointing Qualifying in this position, so we shall have to see what we can do tomorrow.”
Anthony Davidson “The day started off well. After Free Practice this morning we were looking pretty strong to challenge for Q2 in Qualifying, and we got through reasonably easily. Before the session I was a bit sceptical as to whether we could get through or not, but the guys worked hard and everyone did a great job and we did it in the end, even challenging for Q3! It was a really good day, and I am going to remember that lap for a very long time.”
Graham Taylor, Sporting Director “Pushing. The fact that Taku had a spin in Free Practice Three shows how hard SUPER AGURI is trying. We had a strategic approach to Qualifying and the weighbridge nearly cost us dearly, but it shows how far SUPER AGURI has come that we dealt with all the delays swiftly and were able to get the cars out on the circuit at the right time. It is a shame for Taku, but it just shows how competitive our place on the grid is. It was a very strong performance from Anthony. He showed on his second run in Q1 the capability of the car. We knew that we could tweak it a little bit more, and may be there was a bit more speed, and then in Q2 he exploited everything that the car has got. It is so very, very tight in the mid-field and you have to get everything right to take advantage, as Anthony and the team proved today.”