Davidson: shunt is no setback

Davidson was one of several drivers to get it wrong at Ste Devote, and his second session accident meant he slipped back to 19th overall in the standings at the end of the first day.

But despite the setback, the Super Aguri driver believes that he had done enough work beforehand to ensure that he can show well when practice resumes on Saturday morning.

"It is a frustrating day when you finish kissing the barrier at Turn One," he said. "I was really flying up to that point, felt very confident in the car and was beginning to build up speed lap after lap and was starting on a long run.

"But at least we had already found a good balance in the car, so I'm confident for the rest of the weekend."

Teammate Takuma Sato had a less troubled day, ending second practice 13th fastest, and he was comfortable with how things had gone.

"I think that it was a good test day, a normal Thursday in Monaco," said the Japanese driver, fresh from scoring Super Aguri's first point in Spain.

"The track evolution was dramatic from the morning to afternoon. The tyres' performance during the morning session was not as expected, so we made a change for the afternoon. The track improved in the afternoon as more rubber was put down and I got a very different feeling from the car.

"In the end I think that we have a very good idea of what the car will be like this weekend, but we shall have to see about the weather as we there may potentially be rain.

"The car shows good reliability so I was able to complete a lot of laps and a long run, so we shall take a look at the data tomorrow and hope that we have a strong session on Saturday."