Davidson upbeat despite gearbox problem

"We had a bit of a frustrating morning with a gearbox issue after the first stint," said Davidson after practice, where he posted the 13th quickest time.

"But after that was rectified we had a very good second session and found a good balance, especially on the soft Bridgestone Potenza tyre and got a good first lap balance at the end of the day.

"I am confident about the grip levels on the longer runs as well. The hard tyre is a different story, but I think that the gap should close between the two types of tyre, like we saw in Malaysia, over the weekend," added the Super Aguri driver.

Davidson's teammate Takuma Sato completed a solid day of work for the Japanese squad after setting the 16th fastest time of the session in the afternoon.

"It was a good first day," said Sato. "We have maintained our momentum from last week in terms of long run pace, and also from the test here before the opening race when we tried a lot of SA07 aero configurations.

"I am happy with the consistency of the car, but we will work on increasing our speed for tomorrow."