By nGO
July 15 2006

This weekend was Sato's turn for a little bad luck as a mechanical failure halted his progress. Montagny had a good lap out-qualifying Sato, both drivers believe the car is going well and hope to have a strong race. Montagny will start the race 21st, Sato will start 22nd.

Both drivers set comparable lap times and the team managed to close the gap to the rest of the field slightly, to nearly 3 seconds with their old, soon-to-be-retired car. Reliabililty will be key for tomorrow's race where Montagny will be looking for a change in fortune, so he can have a solid race to the finish. Sato will be looking to reach the checkered flag which he has not done for the last two north american rounds.

The weekend has been going well for Montagny who qualified 21st with a good lap, 1:18.637, "It was a good Qualifying session because this morning I was quite happy about the changes the guys had made to the set-up of the car. The car reacted quite okay to the changes this afternoon and for the first time I could beat my team mate and I am happy with that, especially as it is here at my home grand prix in France. So far the car is performing well, so I hope it's going to continue and I will try my best for the race tomorrow.”

Sato overcomes the morning's problems to set a reasonable lap time 1:18.845 he will start the race 22nd, "We had a difficult start as we suffered with a mechanical problem this morning which meant that I lost a lot of time during the practice session and I was unable to run the prepared set-up from yesterday. In Qualifying I think that we came back well, but I suffered a little bit with low grip, but I believe that I have a strong overall package for the race tomorrow."

The objective for Aguri is to finish the race, " It was a good day today. Taku's car had a small problem this morning, but there were no problems for us during Qualifying and the fastest times of our cars are very close together. I am happy that we are closing the gap and that there is only a one-second gap between us and our nearest competitors. We are still in our original car, so this bodes well for the next Grand Prix when we shall be introducing the SA06. Tomorrow we need to finish the race with both cars and I especially hope that Franck sees the chequered flag at his home race, which would be very special for him and the team.”