Better Saturday for Super Aguri
SUPER AGURI F1 TEAM experienced a better day on Saturday, the first Qualifying day of the 2008 Formula One™ World Championship season. Takuma Sato will start the Australian Grand Prix from 20th position while team mate Anthony Davidson will start from 22nd position.
Takuma Sato“Very pleased with our performance today and everything went well under the circumstances. We had a tough start to the weekend yesterday, but it seems as though Melbourne has welcomed us back again now. I enjoyed the first Qualifying without traction control; the car was a little bit unbalanced in the beginning, but on the third run I picked up more grip and I was happier with the balance and I was able to set a quicker lap. I think that we had a very good day and hopefully we shall be able to finish the race tomorrow.”
Anthony Davidson: “It was a difficult Qualifying session for me. With a limited number of laps under my belt going into Qualifying it was always going to be hard to put the car on the limit like that and we were still doing set-up all the way through the session itself. So it is not the best position to be in, but things will improve and I was up on my last flying lap by about three tenths when the Force India car spun, caused yellow flags and I had to back off. It’s just one of those things, but it’s a disappointing end to the day.”
Graham Taylor, Sporting Director “We had many curve balls to deal with today and I think that the team’s mind-set has changed from ‘fighting’ to ‘valiant spirit’. We’ll battle on and improve our performance serially. In Qualifying the boys did a very good job considering we have not had any Qualifying experience during winter testing. With the new format both cars conducted three runs efficiently and it is nice for Takuma to pip at least one car, taking advantage of someone else’s situation. We are now looking forward to the race tomorrow.”
TAKUMA SATO Car 18 (SA08A-06)
FP3 Position 21 Fastest Lap Time 1:28.363
QUALIFYING Grid Position 20 Lap Time 1:28.208
ANTHONY DAVIDSON Car 19 (SA08A-05)
FP3 Position 22 Fastest Lap Time 1:28.912
QUALIFYING Grid Position 22 Lap Time 1:29.059
