By Andrew Cutler
September 28 2007

Scuderia Toro Rosso's first day of running at the Fuji Speedway in Japan went reasonably well for the squad. However, at day's end, neither Vitantonio Liuzzi or Sebastian Vettel were able to break out of the team's 'customary' spot on the time charts.

Tonio would place 14th in the morning session with a best lap of 1:20.808 to show for 29 laps. In the afternoon session he would log 44 laps, with a best time of 1:20.985, good for 18th spot. Sebastian would only log 18 laps in the morning, with a best at 1:21.854, which was 19th fastest. While his afternoon best (of 38) lap would improve to 1:20.997, he would not move up on the time charts.

Here are their post-session comments:

Vitantonio Liuzzi, Toro Rosso (18th, +2.251s):
“It is a nice circuit with changes of gradient as it goes up and down, which is something I like in a track, although it is not particularly difficult. It’s a really cool circuit and I particularly like the high speed section. It is also really wide, which means that you can try a few different lines although in the end the right line evolves where the rubber goes down. Overall it was a decent day, with a good run in the morning meaning we could understand what to do in terms of set-up and I learnt the circuit quickly too. On the second run, I did not get a clear lap on new tyres so I think we could have been faster. But I think we got a lot of good data from the long runs regarding set-up and tyre choice, which gives us plenty to work with for tomorrow. A decent Friday.”

Sebastian Vettel, Toro Rosso (19th, +2.263s):
“It’s a nice circuit and I prefer the first section that has quick high speed corners, while the last part is technically demanding. There are a lot of possible different lines and it is difficult to figure out which is the quickest, as all of them seem to produce similar speed. This makes it harder to set-up the car. Other than that, it has been a normal Friday so there is the usual question mark about fuel loads in the other cars. But my initial feeling is that I am quite happy with how it went today. There are two or three things we can improve. With some work from us and as the track improves, we can move forward.”