Japanese GP Friday Williams notes

The Winfield WilliamsF1 drivers Alex Zanardi and Ralf Schumacher were fifth and 11th quickest respectively in the first free practice session for the Japanese Grand Prix. Both drivers struggled with significant oversteer, partly due to the dirty track. Zanardi set a good fifth fastest time at the end of the second session going out on new tyres.

Alex Zanardi

Chassis: FW21 05 Best Time: 1:42.718 Best Position: 5th

"I was a bit surprised about the time I could set at the end of the session, because I feel that today's car is not handling well. At the same time, I think that everybody must have the same problems here because of a very dirty and slippery track. In reality we have got to work very hard to set up the car for tomorrow's qualifying, because I don't believe we will be able to maintain the same position if we don't make changes."

Ralf Schumacher

Chassis: FW21 06 T-Car Chassis: FW21 02 Best Time: 1:43.399 Best Position: 11th

"First of all I must say that I am happy to be back here in Suzuka because it's one of my favourite racetracks. To be honest, being Friday, I was expecting to do something better than this. Certainly I can't say that I am completely happy with my performance today as I felt the car was quite unstable, inconsistent and nervous on the rear. Anyway, I am pretty confident that we can sort this all out for tomorrow in order to do a good qualifying and in the end a good race."

James Robinson, Senior Operations Engineer

"Today we did the usual Friday homework, with quite a difference in the teams who ran new and used tyres. A lot of homework is required this evening to be able to maintain a good balance throughout the race, while still keeping a close eye on qualifying."