Fukuda happy with BAR debut

Fukuda was announced as one of BAR's development drivers, along with Anthony Davidson and Darren Manning, at the launch of the BAR004 before Christmas.

The French Formula 3 Champion completed 158 laps at Valencia over the weekend with a best time of 1m14.234s, just over half a second faster than Davidson's time set on Thursday.

"I'm very happy with my progress," said Fukuda. "We tested a lot of things again, which was very interesting for me and I'm feeling quite positive. I was happy with the improvement in my lap time, but the important thing was to get to know the car and how I should be working with the team."

Fukuda looked to have been in line to land a test drive with F1 newcomer Toyota and tested with the team at Paul Ricard last year, but the 22-year-old opted for BAR.

Despite a successful first two days in a 2001-spec BAR003, Fukuda admitted the physical demands of driving the car had left him a little sore.

"It was November when I last drove a race car," he said. "Since then I have been training very hard for this moment, but after the first day my back has been quite painful. I had a few problems adjusting to my seat, but generally that's all part of getting used to a Formula 1 car."