Minardi F1 Team drivers Patrick Friesacher and Christijan Albers may have experienced Montreal's demanding Circuit Gilles Villeneuve for the first time today, but they made the most of the opportunity. Both men spent the morning session acclimatising to the newly resurfaced track, which places a premium on effective braking and good traction out of corners. By the afternoon session, however, they had clearly begun to get to grips with the circuit, as their lap times tumbled steadily. Apart from working on chassis balance, Friesacher and Albers were also able to carry out tyre evaluation work, and concluded the day's activities with extended, race-simulation runs.

Patrick Friesacher: I was a little bit disappointed in the first session, as I lost my last run with a clutch-related problem, but then the second session was quite good. We improved a lot in that session, in part at least because of the tyres, and were able to find a good balance for the car. I think we can improve further tomorrow, however, so I feel it could be a good weekend for us.

Christijan Albers: We had a bit of a slow start in the morning, but we came back this afternoon. We have been improving with each run, and although we are still not completely satisfied with all aspects of the car's behaviour, we've still got two more practice sessions tomorrow to work on it. All things being considered, I think we did a reasonable time today.

Paul Stoddart, Team Principal, Minardi Cosworth: Considering the resurfacing of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and the fact the track was always going to be ‘green' on the first day of the race weekend, it's pleasing to be competitive with the Jordans and within two-tenths of a second of one of the Red Bulls. All in all, today's sessions went well, especially considering neither Christijan nor Patrick has competed here before. We look forward to making further progress tomorrow in preparation for Sunday's race.