A good day for the team in Monaco

By nGO
May 25 2006

There were a number of red flags disrupting the session as some drivers were victim to the twisty streets of Monaco, but Super Aguri found reasonable pace and clocked up an impressive amount of mileage. It was a productive day as the team completes their planned programme.

It was another productive day on thursday at the glamourous street circuit Monaco. Takuma Sato completed a mammoth 54 laps focusing on race set up, while Montagny set a remarkably quick time assessing the tyre options. Both drivers are pleased with their first day, practice will resume on Saturday.

Takuma Sato completed 23 laps in the first session and 31 laps in the second session, setting a best time of 1:19.803, "It was a good day for the team. My role in today's programme was to concentrate on the race set-up as the track conditions will change considerably before Saturday morning. We will be back to a low-grip surface for the third free practice session as there is no running tomorrow and this is why today was our best chance to experiment with the different set-up options for the race. I am reasonably happy with the car balance and pace today, so I am looking forward to continuing our programme on Saturday."

Montagny completed 21 laps in the first session and 19 laps in the second session, setting a best time of 1:18.731, "This morning we split the tyre choices between Taku and me. I had the easier option so that I could clock up some laps and get used to the circuit. They were very comfortable to drive but unfortunately they were only good for relatively few laps, so this afternoon we worked on another tyre option and I think that we found something that is more or less ok. The car is still a bit nervous and is quite heavy on the steering, but we had a productive day and I am finally happy with my lap time."

Aguri pleased with his drivers and hopeful of progress for the race, "This is a very tough circuit for the drivers as well as for the cars. I am sure it must be hard to handle the SA05 here compared to other Grand Prix circuits and since it is such a challenging track, the drivers' skills are very important. After looking at the times from today's practice sessions both Super Aguri drivers are coping with the car very well. I think that we are making small but consistent steps forward and are on our way to finding a good set-up for the race."