Minardi to burn midnight oil

Mark Webber had a scare when his wing broke up and went under the car in free practice in the morning, but it was Alex Yoong's turn to have the wing part company with the car when he ran wide out of the final turn during the qualifying hour.

Minardi came to Barcelona with two different wings, one a lighter version, and team boss Paul Stoddart confirmed that the team had withdrawn that and reverted to the original version after Webber's moment. The Australian denied that he had made solid contact with any of the circuit kerbs. The bumpy surface is also an issue at the Spanish track.

After Yoong's failure, the team is faced with reinforcing the original wing at the factory overnight and shipping it to the circuit in time for the Sunday morning warm-up. "There's going to be some tired people," said team boss Paul Stoddart, "but I'm sure we'll make it."

Yoong failed to make the 107 percent qualifying cut for the last race at Imola but, despite his problems, made it in Spain, his 1m21.41s lap representing 106.61 percent of Michael Schumacher's pole position time.