It was a positive start to the San Marino Grand Prix weekend for the Super Aguri team today. Yuji Ide pushed himself and the SA05 during the first Free Practice session to clock a best lap time that was only 0.2 seconds off the pace of team mate Takuma Sato. The team completed its planned programmes for the day and now focuses on the decisions to be made for the Qualifying session tomorrow.

Takuma Sato: We had a good day and were able to learn a number of useful things by varying our programme. It was interesting testing the two Bridgestone tyre options and we have collected important data. The car is unstable on the kerbs and bumps, so it is a bit difficult to drive. But I think that we improved throughout the sessions and we will just continue to work hard to prepare ourselves for tomorrow.

Yuji Ide: After the Australian Grand Prix I was not happy with my past results, so I had an important meeting with the engineers in UK before we came to Imola. I am glad we had this particular meeting since I feel that the car is working much better for me and I think that I will be able to show a better performance than during the past races. I was able to have a clear run today and I am feeling more confident about the Qualifying session tomorrow. I won't be able to make up too many places, but I am hoping that it may be my best qualifying and starting position so far.

Aguri Suzuki, Team Principal: I think Yuji is getting used to handling the car and starting to feel more comfortable with it. It is good to see him growing in confidence and getting used to his F1 surroundings. I know that there are a lot of things we need to improve and our performances are far from the top level, however, we are taking very good steps forward. As I always say, we want to improve the team and performance step-by-step. I am looking forward to the Qualifying tomorrow.