Japanese GP Minardi Friday notes

SHINJI NAKANO - 20th "I struggled with oversteer in both sessions, which prevented me from being faster. After this, I could not use the best way a new set of tyre because of my mistake; I think I could have gone faster by at least 6/7 hundredths, without that accident. I am anyway trustful that tomorrow we will find the best set up for my car. I have seen on TV that some fans of mine are showing many flags with encouraging phrases for me, and I would like to thank them: I can't see them while I am driving, of course, because I am concentrating on the track, but to know that they are there makes me feel good and charges my batteries!"

ESTEBAN TUERO -- 22nd "In the first session I could not ran too much because of a brake problem. They were changed between the two sessions. It's no easy thing to find the right set up for the car on this circuit and with the engineers we will work from now (on paper) until tomorrow (on the track) to make the best use of the data we collected today. I know this track and I like it, last time I ran here was right last year, in Formula Nippon: I hope I will do better tomorrow."

TREVOR KNOWLES- (Ford Cosworth) Support engineer: "Today we ran M3 engines, no worries on either engines regards the reliability or performance. We are now fitting two M4 spec. engines for tomorrow ."