French GP: Super Aguri Saturday qualifying notes

It was a successful day for the Super Aguri F1 Team. A mechanical problem during the third Free Practice session unfortunately hindered Takuma's performance during Qualifying, however in the afternoon Franck, who was running on a different strategy to Taku, achieved his best Qualifying performance and out-qualified his team-mate at the very last minute of the first Qualifying session by two tenths of a second.

Takuma Sato:

"We had a difficult start as we suffered with a mechanical problem this morning which meant that I lost a lot of time during the practice session and I was unable to run the prepared set-up from yesterday. In Qualifying I think that we came back well, but I suffered a little bit with low grip, but I believe that I have a strong overall package for the race tomorrow."

Franck Montagny:

"It was a good Qualifying session because this morning I was quite happy about the changes the guys had made to the set-up of the car. The car reacted quite okay to the changes this afternoon and for the first time I could beat my team mate and I am happy with that, especially as it is here at my home grand prix in France. So far the car is performing well, so I hope it's going to continue and I will try my best for the race tomorrow."

Aguri Suzuki, Team Principal:

"It was a good day today. Taku's car had a small problem this morning, but there were no problems for us during Qualifying and the fastest times of our cars are very close together. I am happy that we are closing the gap and that there is only a one-second gap between us and our nearest competitors."

"We are still in our original car, so this bodes well for the next Grand Prix when we shall be introducing the SA06. Tomorrow we need to finish the race with both cars and I especially hope that Franck sees the chequered flag at his home race, which would be very special for him and the team."

Takuma Sato
Chassis: SA05-05
Grid Position: 22
Best Lap Time: 1:18.845

Franck Montagny
Chassis: SA05-02
Grid Position: 21
Best Lap Time: 1:18.637

-superaguri-