2005 Malaysian GP Practice and First Qualifying
B.A.R Honda Saturday 19 March 2005 SATO STANDS DOWN Virus forces Takuma Sato out for the remainder of the Malaysian Grand Prix weekend ------------------------------------------------ The biggest news story from Sepang involves Lucky Strike B.A.R Honda driver Takuma Sato, who has been forced to stand down from driving for the remainder of the weekend due to a viral infection. The Japanese star has been replaced by B.A.R Honda’s third driver, Anthony Davidson. Sato started to feel ill late on Friday night and was put on a drip to replace lost fluids. He improved a little after treatment but the virus showed signs of recurring again this morning and Takuma was advised by Formula One’s permanent medical staff not to drive in what will be the most physically demanding race of the year. “Obviously I am extremely disappointed that I have had to retire from this race,” said Takuma. “I accept the medical team’s advice and wish Anthony well for the remainder of the weekend.” Davidson had this morning’s two 45-minute practice sessions in which to acquaint himself with the B.A.R Honda 007 in race weekend trim and the Sepang International Circuit, which he first drove last year in his role as the team’s Friday tester. He was the first driver to qualify this afternoon and his lap of 1:34.866s put him 15th fastest overall. Jenson Button was quick in this morning’s first practice session, but was forced to miss the second session after his Honda RA005E suffered an oil leak. The leak was fixed and the possibility of having to change engines and suffer a 10-place penalty was avoided. In qualifying Jenson was the 10th car out and set a time of 1:33.616s, which placed him ninth and just over a second away from Fernando Alonso’s provisional pole position time. The top 11 cars in the session were on Michelin tyres. JENSON BUTTON First Qualifying – Position: 9th / Lap time: 1:33.616 "The car felt good but I haven’t had any running on new tyres today, which meant it was difficult to get a real feel for the car in qualifying set-up. We also had a problem with the engine this morning and I wasn't able to get out in second practice. Despite that, the lap was OK and I’m reasonably happy. I lost of a bit of time in the last sector but we're close enough to be able to get some of that back tomorrow. I’m sure we can do a better job in the morning and look forward to a more positive race." ANTHONY DAVIDSON First Qualifying – Position: 15th / Lap time: 1:34.866 “It's been a tough but exciting day for me. When I had the final confirmation that I would be driving this morning, I was packing my bags ready to go home! This is probably the toughest race challenge I’ve ever been faced with, and although I know the car very well, I'm still learning the track because I had limited running on the Friday here last year. It's always tough being the first car out and I wanted to take it a bit steady and keep the car on track. Overall I'm pleased with my performance under the circumstances and I’m confident that there’s more to come in tomorrow's final qualifying run." GEOFFREY WILLIS, TECHNICAL DIRECTOR “We are reasonably pleased with our qualifying results, given the fact that Jenson lost the whole of the second practice session today while we sought to rectify an engine oil leak and Anthony stepped into the car at short notice with only two short sessions to adjust to the circuit and had the significant disadvantage of running first this afternoon. Both drivers are happy with the car set-up and clearly could have gone quicker this afternoon. The nature of the aggregate qualifying time will make it more of a challenge to improve our positions in Sunday’s session but we are confident that the cars and tyres will work well in tomorrow’s race.” SHUHEI NAKAMOTO, ENGINEERING DIRECTOR, HONDA RACING DEVELOPMENT “It’s been a busy day! It’s a shame for Taku that he had to pull out, but Anthony was able to get some good track time in free practice after being called into action this morning. Unfortunately we lost the second free practice session on Jenson’s car with an engine oil leak. In the first qualifying run, Anthony had to deal with different circuit conditions from this morning, and Jenson’s lap time suffered from having missed a session. We’ll do our best to have a better second qualifying session tomorrow.” First Qualifying 1 Fernando Alonso (Renault) 1:32.582 2 Jarno Trulli (Toyota) 1:32.672 3 Giancarlo Fisichella (Renault) 1:32.765 4 Kimi Räikkönen (McLaren-Mercedes) 1:32.839 5 Ralf Schumacher (Toyota) 1:33.106 6 Mark Webber (Williams-BMW) 1:33.204 7 Juan Pablo Montoya (McLaren-Mercedes) 1:33.333 8 Nick Heidfeld (Williams-BMW) 1:33.464 9 Jenson Button (B.A.R Honda) 1:33.616 10 Christian Klien (Red Bull Racing) 1:33.724 11 David Coulthard (Red Bull Racing) 1:33.809 12 Michael Schumacher (Ferrari) 1:34.072 13 Felipe Massa (Sauber-Petronas) 1:34.151 14 Rubens Barrichello (Ferrari) 1:34.162 15 Anthony Davidson (B.A.R Honda) 1:34.866 16 Jacques Villeneuve (Sauber-Petronas) 1:34.887 17 Narain Karthikeyan (Jordan-Toyota) 1:37.806 18 Tiago Monteiro (Jordan-Toyota) 1:37.856 19 Patrick Friesacher (Minardi-Cosworth) 1:39.268 20 Christijan Albers (Minardi-Cosworth) 1:40.432