14/05/2006
NEWS STORY
Super Aguri driver Takuma Sato brought home his SA05 to finish today's Spanish Grand Prix in 17th position. It was a disappointing end to Franck Montagny's weekend as a drive shaft failure ended his race prematurely on lap 10.
Takuma Sato: It was good to finish a race again – our first since we have come back to Europe. I had a difficult start; I was side-by-side with Monteiro when he forced me to run wide in the dirt and I lost a lot of momentum. Into turn one I regained position under braking and overtook a few cars, but by turn three, because the tyres were covered in dust and in a bad condition, I lost it into turn four. After that I was struggling with oversteer and I was just following the car in front when I lost it again. After we made an adjustment at the first pitstop the car felt much better and I was able to do a good run for the rest of the race.
Franck Montagny: Obviously it is bad that we did not finish the race and stopped after 10 laps, but I made quite a good start and I could overtake Taku and the two Midlands so it is getting better. We had a little bit of fighting after one or two laps and after that I had a little bit of space and my lap time was ok. I am quite happy because after three days we have finally found a good set-up for the car. We still have to work on the new tyres and gearbox because it appears that we need to focus a little bit more on the details and if we do that I think that it will get better and better. We have something positive to take away from this weekend and for me it was a good feeling to be in front of my team-mate for a few laps!
Aguri Suzuki, Team Principal: It was a busy race for us and Taku did a great job, so I am pleased that he passed the chequered flag. Franck did very well at the start and showed a good performance until he had to retire due to a drive shaft problem. I hope that we will be able to provide a better car for him as soon as possible. We wanted both cars to finish the race today so it is little disappointing, but we have learned a lot from this race and are confident that we are continuing to improve this car for the coming races. All in all, I am glad that our car finished the race today and we look forward to heading to Monaco.
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