Spanish GP: Minardi Friday notes

BARCELONA, SPAIN, April 26, 2002 - Ideal weather conditions greeted KL Minardi Asiatech drivers Mark Webber and Alex Yoong today at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya, as the team commenced its preparations for this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix. With the track surface picking up grip in the warm afternoon sunshine, useful progress was made in fine-tuning the handling of the KL Minardi Asiatech PS02 chassis around the swooping, high-speed curves of the Spanish track. Promisingly, both drivers recorded times less than three seconds off the fastest lap set today around the challenging 4.730-km circuit.

MARK WEBBER

"It has been a good Friday for us, as we got some useful running in. We lost a little time at the end of the first session, while a hydraulic problem was solved, but we made up for it this afternoon, completing our technical programme, a tyre programme and looking at some software as well. So far, I'm satisfied with our progress, as many of the other teams test extensively here at Barcelona and know the place like the backs of their hands. I'm also happy with today's work because we had a good amount of fuel in the car. We're ready for tomorrow.

ALEX YOONG

"It was an interesting day. I was still finding my way around the circuit, because during the test here in February, I didn't get many laps in the dry. The track was very 'green' today, so I think all the teams, including ourselves, had some chassis balance issues. We just worked on sorting those out as the day went on. I feel we can go quite a bit quicker tomorrow."

PAUL STODDART, Team Principal, KL Minardi Asiatech

"It was pleasing to see both cars complete their full technical programmes in preparation for tomorrow's qualifying session. For Mark and Alex to record lap times just two and three seconds respectively from the best time recorded today, by Michael Schumacher, was particularly pleasing. We now look forward to another useful day tomorrow."

THE ASIATECH VIEW

This has been a productive day for Asiatech, whose engines never missed a beat. Their trouble-free performance allowed both the KL Minardi Asiatech drivers to rack up a substantial total of laps in preparation for tomorrow's qualifying session.

Chassis allocation
PS01/03 -Alex Yoong (No 22)
Position 22nd
Fastest lap 1 min 23.269 sec
PS01/04 -Mark Webber(No 23)
Position 20th
Fastest lap 1 min 22.459 sec
PS01/01 - Spare

-minardi-