2006 CHINESE GRAND PRIX – FREE PRACTICE
FRANCK MONTAGNY - Car No: 41 (chassis SA06-02)
FP1 Position 10 No: of Laps 19 Best Lap Time 1:38.464
FP2 Position 7 No: of Laps 26 Best Lap Time 1:37.278
TAKUMA SATO - Car No: 22 (chassis SA06-03)
FP1 Position 15 No: of Laps 8 Best Lap Time 1:39.887
FP2 Position 29 No: of Laps 9 Best Lap Time 1:41.315
SAKON YAMAMOTO - Car No: 23 (chassis SA06-04)
FP1 Position 17 No: of Laps 10 Best Lap Time 1:41.415
FP2 Position 25 No: of Laps 22 Best Lap Time 1:39.636
Weather Hot and humid Air Temperature 24-27°C Track Temperature
26-30°C
SUPER AGURI F1 TEAM finished the first of the free practice
sessions at the Shanghai International Circuit today in mixed
spirits. On the positive side, Franck Montagny achieved the
team’s highest timesheet position finishing the second
free practice session in seventh position with a time of 1:38.464.
Mechanical issues limited both Takuma and Sakon’s running
during the morning session and once again restricted Takuma’s
track time in the afternoon.
Franck Montagny
“Today was quite a good day from a performance point
of view and for a sick man! Well, this morning I was really
not happy about the car, more from a tyre point of view, because
we had a lot of degradation but I think it was the same last
year. We worked quite a bit on car set-up and then this afternoon
we did our long runs and tyre comparisons. The car started
to be quite okay so I was happy with it and when we started
to do performance runs the lap time started to be quite good
straight away. It was not an easy day because the temperature
changed quite a lot and the track conditions also changed.
There was a little bit of rain which made the track a little
different again, a bit more slippery, but it was quite good
fun.”
Takuma Sato
“Unfortunately today my running was very limited due
to a gearbox problem. It seems that every outing I suffered
some related issue and so I couldn't evaluate the car set-up
much today. This morning the car worked well straight away,
but this afternoon I only completed a few laps, so it was
not a very good day. The session tomorrow morning will therefore
be extremely important, so let's hope we have a better day
tomorrow.”
Sakon Yamamoto
“We had a hydraulic problem with my SA06 this morning
so we did not have much time on the circuit and I was only
able to complete eight laps. But I pushed quite hard during
this session as I wanted to get to know the car and circuit
better. Although we did not have any problems in the afternoon
I did not feel very comfortable with the car and so I didn't
have the chance to find a set-up I was happy with. Franck
did a good job, so we will compare data and speak to the engineers
about how we can improve on this situation for tomorrow.”
Aguri Suzuki, Team Principal
"Franck did a very good job to finish in seventh position
today, so I am very happy with that. Taku's car had a gearbox
issue so we have to find a solution to this problem as soon
as possible. Sakon's car had a hydraulic problem in the morning,
but was able to have a good session this afternoon and complete
quite a few laps today. We have collected quite a bit of data
from the car today so overall we have had quite a good Friday.”
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