By
April 21 2006

Takuma Sato kicked off Super Aguri's Barcelona test today covering a healthy distance with the car: 76 laps in a session disrupted by many Red flags.

The first time Super Aguri came to do some testing in Barcelona back in february, there were many problems which limited running, having completed barely over 50 laps on their most productive final day back then. A few months on things are looking much brighter.

This time around there appear to be improvements in all areas, today the team managed 76 laps and towards the end Sato set a time of 1:19.328, which is almost half a second faster then the fastest lap he set the last time he tested here. It seems progress is being made, the gap to the quickest time is creeping close to 4 seconds.

The second and third days were cut short by reliability issues, with Ide not being able to test the car before Imola and Sato completing only a handful of laps, bringing the overall tally to 117 laps over the three day test. The team has gained a better understanding of the SA05 and picked up on some reliability issues, although they did not complete all their plans, leaving for the Imola circuit without conducting crucial Bridgestone tire tests.