Sato spins out qualfiying session
SUPER AGURI F1 TEAM made steady progress during Free Practice this morning and team drivers Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson were satisfied with the work that the team had achieved on improvements overnight. Having found better balance in the SA08A’s for Qualifying, the drivers pushed their machines to the limit on the dusty, slippery and demanding track this afternoon.
Takuma Sato: “We made good progress as a result of the overnight changes and the car came together during Free Practice this morning and I was happy with the balance. During Qualifying my first run was a little bit slippery, but reasonable. I was much happier during my second run with the grip and I had a good feeling until the very last corner. Then I was touching on the outside kerb and the car ran wide and snapped quickly away from me. It is very disappointing that I could not complete Qualifying, but hopefully we will show strong pace for the race tomorrow.”
Anthony Davidson: “A good day’s Qualifying. I was happy with the balance of the car and I have always enjoyed the track here. Today it was good to us; we chased the car ahead closely right up until the end and there was only a few of tenths between me and Sutil. I really think that we have seen the limit of the car today, so we should all be pretty pleased.”
Graham Taylor, Sporting Director: “During Free Practice this morning both cars covered a good amount of work, especially for a race set-up, but we knew that we needed to work a little bit harder on the balance for Qualifying, with one of the tyres giving us some issues. In Qualifying everything was going according to plan, however, unfortunately Takuma was caught out at turn 15 and sustained some rear end damage, but Anthony did two very fine laps and we are looking forward to competing with the cars in front of us tomorrow.”
TAKUMA SATO Car 18 (SA08A-06)
FP3 Position 22 No: of Laps 16 Fastest Lap Time 1:34.952
QUALIFYING Position 22 No: of Laps 5 Fastest Lap Time 1:35.725
ANTHONY DAVIDSON Car 19 (SA08A-05)
FP3 Position 21 No: of Laps 18 Fastest Lap Time 1:34.591
QUALIFYING Position 21 No: of Laps 9 Fastest Lap Time 1:34.140
