Italian GP: BAR Friday notes

BAR-Honda Italian Grand Prix Free Practices

Jacques Villeneuve

"We made some progress during the two sessions but we're not as competitive as we should be. Plus, we had a hydraulic leak and I lost time at the end of the morning session. Monza is a great track but we carry so little downforce here that it's hard to get the set-up right - tyre choice is always difficult because you're trying to find more grip without blistering the tyres. We got some good runs in though and tried some different things and in the end we managed to get the car quite well-balanced once we'd put some laps on the tyres. Obviously we have some work to do yet so we'll try to do what we can to improve the car for the race."

Olivier Panis

"It's difficult to judge where we stand after today. We have addressed some minor problems on the first session but now we have to work more on the set-up."

David Richards, Team Principal

"As always, it's difficult to read too much into a Friday. We've had a reasonably productive first day's running but we have some way to go yet to maximise performance from the overall package. We've had a couple of minor mechanical problems which the team were on top of very quickly so let's hope we can now look forward to a reliable weekend."

Driver/Chassis
Jacques Villeneuve
BAR004/06
Position: 12th
Best lap time: 1:24.833 (35 laps)

Olivier Panis
BAR004/08
Position: 15th
Best lap time: 1:25.027 (41 laps)
T-Car: BAR004/09

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