The weather at the Fuji Speedway played another starring role in the Japanese Grand Prix, denying the Super Aguri F1 team and Takuma Sato the home race that they had hoped for, and dampening spirits of the large, partisan, crowd.

　 “ I have never experienced such a long period with the safety car before and it was very cold in the cockpit. Once we started, visibility was zero on the main straight and then, suddenly, someone braked in the middle of the straight in front of me, we touched and I damaged my front nose. When the rain got lighter in the middle stint, I had fuel to the end and a new set of extreme tyres. With this combination, unfortunately, the tyres overheated and I lost a lot of grip. I wanted to try my first set of tyres again, so we used the opportunity during the last safety car period to pit. This seemed to work much better and I was able to improve on my pace for the last stint and overtake a few people but, in the end, it was a disappointing result for the team after a tough weekend for everybody. I would like to thank the fans who have supported us through such terrible weather. ”

　 Takuma Sato endured difficult driving conditions at the Fuji Speedway on day two of the Japanese Grand Prix meeting, as rolling fog - a usual occurrence for the mountainous Fuji area - descended over the circuit, together with light rain. As visibility became ever poorer, the morning’s free practice session was abandoned after only a few minutes of late running, but the weather lifted slightly in the afternoon, allowing qualifying to take place on time. Sadly for Taku, however, it wasn't the most enjoyable of sessions.

　 “ We were fortunate that we were able to run in qualifying today with such foggy conditions. During the first few minutes, my pace was competitive, but I wasn’t happy with the balance and so came back to the pit. Unfortunately, I was also called to the weighbridge and that cost me a bit of time. However, in the second outing, we didn’t have any grip at all and it was a real shame because, if we could have kept up our pace from the first outing to the end, we were looking strong. Obviously, we need to understand why we could not improve our time as this is so important before our race start tomorrow. ”

　 Like the undulating track at Fuji Speedway, Friday was a day of ups and downs for Super Aguri F1, with Takuma Sato enduring a problem in the morning session which meant a change of rear end and a considerable loss of running time. After an encouraging start on the timesheets for team-mate Anthony Davidson, the team picked up pace in the afternoon and is looking forward to a trouble-free weekend.

　 “ I had a mechanical problem during the first session which meant that I was only able to complete two outings this morning. We lost a lot of time necessary for the testing you need for a new circuit and, because of this, we were forced to rush and cut out some of our programme this afternoon. We had to evaluate the balance on long runs for the different downforce levels as this is very important, but it meant that I was not able to set-up the car as I would have liked to and it was more of a data-collecting exercise. Hopefully, though, with the work that we managed to complete today, we will be able to set-up the car more competitively and have a better day tomorrow. ”