Belgian GP Friday Minardi notes

BELGIAN GRAND PRIX - Spa-Francorchamps, 28th August 1998 FREE PRACTICE

ESTEBAN TUERO Chassis 05 20th laps 33 time: 1:57,014

"Today I got to grips with this track with my F1 single-seater for the very first time. I improved my time constantly although slowly because, with the track being so long, it is quite difficult to complete a whole lap without making any mistake. I tried several different types of tyre: later, with the Team engineers , after looking at the telemetry figures, we will decide which tyre will be used tomorrow for qualifying. Unfortunately, I could not use as I wished one of my sets of tyres, because Ralf Schumacher, who was coming back onto the track, came in my way right when I was supposed to score a good time."

SHINJI NAKANO Chassis 04 21st laps 30 time: 1:57,682

"Today my car was very difficult to drive, but I can not tell exactly what was not working. This track is very demanding and very long and there are many corners where it is easy to loose worthy hundreths. We must check the telemetry figures, in order to make a right balance of the situation."

TREVOR KNOWLES - (Ford Cosworth) Support engineer: "Today we ran the last M1 spec Engine in Esteban's car, as he was spending a lot of the session just learning the circuit. It did not give any problem. We ran an M3 engine in Shinji's car. For tomorrow's qualifying we will be fitting two fresh M3 engines to the cars."

Spa-Francorchamps, 28th August 1998