Garcia makes F1 debut for Minardi
Minardi gave another Grand Prix hopeful his Formula 1 debut at Valencia today (Wednesday) when Spain's Antonio Garcia was given a run in its PS01B chassis
Garcia was promised a run by Minardi for winning the Spanish-based Open Telefonica Nissan series in 2000, but its last-gasp buy-out by Paul Stoddart at the beginning of last year meant Garcia had to wait for his F1 chance while the F1 minnows battled to be ready for the start of the season.
Since then, the 21-year-old has raced in the FIA Formula 3000 International Championship, but hadn't driven a single-seater for four months when he climbed into the Minardi this afternoon. His last race outing was in the FIA GT Championship at Estoril, where he qualified an N-GT class Porsche on pole overall only to be involved in a first corner pile-up.
Driving duties on Thursday and Friday will be taken over by Mark Webber and Christijan Albers, as 2002 race driver Alex Yoong has to return to Malaysia for a sponsorship function.
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