Bruni Laments Driving Error

Italian driver Gianmaria Bruni lamented his driving error during today's final qualifying session for the Chinese Grand Prix.

The Minardi driver fell victim to the tricky first corner of the Shanghai circuit, pushing too hard at the start of his flying lap and spinning his car. Bruni was later followed by World Champion Michael Schumacher, who also spun at the first corner.

"I did a good lap in pre-qualifying, and I was pushing very hard on my qualifying run when the car spun," said the Italian, who failed to set a time. "These things can happen â€" it happened to Michael Schumacher in a Ferrari today, and it happened to me in a Minardi.

"That aside, though, I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's race."

Bruni's Hungarian teammate Zsolt Baumgartner had a better session and finished as 18th quickest, albeit over six seconds off the pace.

"We were struggling with some oversteer this morning, but gradually made progress with the chassis balance on longer runs, which will be relevant for our race performance tomorrow," said Baumgartner.

"The guys worked very hard today, as they had to make a lot of changes between the third and fourth practice sessions, as well as carry out an engine change. I'm happy that I made both my qualifying runs without any mistakes."