Wilson aiming for consistancy

Justin Wilson travels to Austria and the A1-Ring later this week with renewed vigour following his first classified F1 finish at the Spanish Grand Prix. The Sheffield-born racer enjoyed his best outing to-date at the Circuit de Catalunya, ...

Justin Wilson travels to Austria and the A1-Ring later this week with renewed vigour following his first classified F1 finish at the Spanish Grand Prix. The Sheffield-born racer enjoyed his best outing to-date at the Circuit de Catalunya, out-qualifying and finishing ahead of his Minardi team-mate Jos Verstappen in only the fifth race of his rookie season.

Justin Wilson.

Photo by Minardi Formula 1.

Buoyed by a storming performance on the first lap in Spain, where he eventually ran as high as eighth in the Cosworth powered, Bridgestone-shod Minardi PS03, Justin now hopes for consistency heading into this weekend's 71-lap Austrian Grand Prix, Round 6 of the FIA Formula One World Championship:

"Ideally this weekend I'd like to put another race distance under my belt," commented Wilson. "I was fairly pleased with 11th in Spain and if we can finish inside the top ten in Austria it would mean progress for everyone at Minardi and move us closer to where we want to be, in a points scoring position!"

"It's always a pleasure to race in Austria as the A1-Ring is in a great setting. Unfortunately I never get time to see too much of it as I'm always kept busy at the track. It's quite a technical circuit and can be tricky to drive. The first three corners are very tight and you're forced to use the kerbs quite a lot. Following that the remaining corners open up and you carry your speed onto the start-finish straight. Personally I'm hoping we can close the gap a little to the teams ahead of us on the grid. I generally enjoy racing at the A1-Ring and I don't doubt that this weekend, in an F1 car, will be any different!"

Justin's previous two visits to the 4.326km A1-Ring, while competing in the FIA International F3000 Championship, brought podium triumphs for the 24-year-old. He finished runner-up in Austria in 2000, Justin's second season in the championship and first with Nordic Racing. The following season Justin went one better at the A1-Ring, claiming his second victory of the year, his Austrian success adding momentum to his successful championship challenge.

Wilson's first taste of the A1-Ring in a Formula One car will commence with the two hour extra practice session scheduled for 8:30am on Friday morning (16 May).