Monaco GP: Super Aguri Thursday practice notes

The Super Aguri F1 Team made an encouraging start to its Monaco Grand Prix weekend today. Under a clear, blue sky in the Principality, race drivers Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson made good progress with the SA07 this morning. Anthony's session was cut short in the afternoon, however Takuma was able to complete a longer run and collect some valuable data.

Takuma Sato:

"I think that it was a good test day, a normal Thursday in Monaco. The track evolution was dramatic from the morning to afternoon. The tyres' performance during the morning session was not as expected, so we made a change for the afternoon. The track improved in the afternoon as more rubber was put down and I got a very different feeling from the car."

"In the end I think that we have a very good idea of what the car will be like this weekend, but we shall have to see about the weather as we there may potentially be rain. The car shows good reliability so I was able to complete a lot of laps and a long run, so we shall take a look at the data tomorrow and hope that we have a strong session on Saturday."

Anthony Davidson:

"It is a frustrating day when you finish kissing the barrier at Turn One. I was really flying up to that point, felt very confident in the car and was beginning to build up speed lap after lap and was starting on a long run. But at least we had already found a good balance in the car, so I'm confident for the rest of the weekend."

Graham Taylor, Sporting Director:

"Thursday in Monaco is always tough. The circuit was particularly green this morning and in these conditions it is difficult to get a good balance in the car. We made some progress this afternoon and it's obviously disappointing that Anthony went off at Turn One, but we still managed to gather some good data. Taku completed a good long run and now we have Friday to analyse how we are going to move forward on Saturday."

Takuma Sato
Chassis: SA07-04
FP1 Position: 14th
Fastest Lap Time 1:19.203
FP2 Position: 13th
Fastest Lap Time 1:17.459

Anthony Davidson
Chassis: SA07-03
FP1 Position: 18th
Fastest Lap Time 1:19.337
FP2 Position: 19th
Fastest Lap Time 1:18.328

-credit: super aguri