Baumgartner Happy with Friday's Work

Hungarian Zsolt Baumgartner was pleased with his day's work in today's free practice for the United States Grand Prix.

The Minardi driver, in action at the Indianapolis circuit for the first time, gave some hope to his struggling team by setting the 18th quickest time of the day, some three seconds off the pace.

"We were struggling throughout the day with the balance, and I think by the end of the day with my engineer we did a good job," said the Hungarian. "At the beginning, I was a bit worried. That was my first time on this track, and I didn't find my rhythm very well and anything.

"I am very happy that at the end I could find a good rhythm and do a nice lap. So basically tomorrow I hope we can do work on the race balance."

Italian teammate Gianmaria Bruni was pleased with his pace despite succumbing to a mechanical problem in the opening session. The Minardi driver finished down in 24th place.

"The balance was good during the run, and I was supposed to go faster and closer to Jordan with the same amount of fuel. And it was a shame we couldn't run at the end with low fuel, said the Italian, whose problem in first practice forced the session to be red flagged.

"It was some hydraulic problem in the differential. The pressure went down," Bruni explained.