Takuma Sato had a tough Italian Grand Prix, after brake problems slowed his charge on the opening few laps - prior to the safety car being deployed after David Coulthard's crash. He eventually brought his SA07 home in 16th place.

　 “ On the way to, and also on the grid, I felt the brake pedal had gone really soft and I clearly had a problem, but at that time there was nothing we could do. I tried to warm up the car on the formation lap and then the front brakes caught fire when I got back to the grid and there was a lot of smoke, which I was really worried about it. I didn’t have a good feeling about the brakes, but into Turn One I was able to make up some places. My front brake was really fading and I was struggling with the car as it locked the rear wheel a lot. I couldn't stop because the front didn't have any bite and as a result I lost a few places. The safety car then helped me to cool down the brakes and they came back to reasonable level. ”
“ After that I was able to recover my race, overtake a few cars and push my way through. ”
“ On the last stint the option tyre came into reasonable grip and I was able to do a good lap time, but overall it was a tough race. ”

　 Takuma Sato missed out entry into Q2 by only the narrowest of margins on Saturday-just 0.01 of a second, showing exactly how competitive the mid-field grid remains. His best time was a 1 minute 23.749 seconds, which will put him 17th on the grid, ahead of the likes of Toyota's Ralf Schumacher and Red Bull Racing's David Coulthard.

　 “ The car felt better today and there was good progress made from yesterday. In my first run in qualifying I just went a little bit deep under braking into Turn One and thought that I could make up the time later. On the second run I was quicker, but unfortunately I hit the additional bump on the second chicane and obviously lost time there. But I think that we have progressed well over the weekend up to this point, so let’s hope that tomorrow turns out to be a better day. ”

　 In a dramatic change in conditions from those experienced at last week's test, fine weather greeted Takuma Sato at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza on Friday. In the end Taku was 13th in FP1 and 17th in FP2. His best lap was a 1 minute 24.587 seconds.

　 “ We had to cover some of the testing programme that we could not complete here last week and it was good to see that we made some progress. We knew that it is going to be a tough weekend for us, but on the positive side, I think that we can improve our performance in the morning tomorrow. ”