Ide confident of raising game

The Japanese rookie has struggled to match to the pace of his more experienced teammate Takuma Sato since the start of the season, and very limited testing has not helped him.

Ide was scheduled to have a full day of testing at Barcelona last week, but problems with the car meant he could not run at all.

Despite that, the Super Aguri driver believes a meeting with his engineers before the Imola race will help him improve from now on.

"After the Australian Grand Prix I was not happy with my past results, so I had an important meeting with the engineers in UK before we came to Imola," said Ide.

"I am glad we had this particular meeting since I feel that the car is working much better for me and I think that I will be able to show a better performance than during the past races."

Ide was slowest in today's practice, over a second behind Sato.

"I was able to have a clear run today and I am feeling more confident about the qualifying session tomorrow. I won't be able to make up too many places, but I am hoping that it may be my best qualifying and starting position so far," he added.