Formula One news

Minardi pleased with first practice day

The Minardi drivers have experienced Montreal's demanding Circuit Gilles Villeneuve for the first time today and tried to make the most of it. Patrick Friesacher took 19th place. Christijan Albers was two places behind his teammate.

 "I was a little bit disappointed in the first session," Friesacher commented. "As I lost my last run with a clutch-related problem, but then the second session was quite good.  We improved a lot in that session, in part at least because of the tyres, and were able to find a good balance for the car.  I think we can improve further tomorrow, however, so I feel it could be a good weekend for us."

"We had a bit of a slow start in the morning, but we came back this afternoon," Christijan Albers said about his practice. "We have been improving with each run, and although we are still not completely satisfied with all aspects of the car's behaviour, we've still got two more practice sessions tomorrow to work on it.  All things being considered, I think we did a reasonable time today."  

Paul Stoddart added: "Considering the resurfacing of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and the fact the track was always going to be 'green' on the first day of the race weekend, it's pleasing to be competitive with the Jordans and within two-tenths of a second of one of the Red Bulls.  All in all, today's sessions went well, especially considering neither Christijan nor Patrick has competed here before.  We look forward to making further progress tomorrow in preparation for Sunday's race."

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