Minardi puts Spanish troubles behind it

There were smiles of relief in the Minardi camp, after Friday's free practice session passed without incident. The team endured a torrid time in Spain two weeks ago, suffering three wing failures which forced a withdrawal from the race, so to get through the two one-hour sessions without a single problem was cause for celebration

"It's been a fantastic day, and a great way to put the trials and tribulations of Spain well and truly behind us," said team boss Paul Stoddart. "Neither car skipped a beat. Alex [Yoong] deserves special praise for his efforts. On a day when virtually every driver had an off-course excursion of some description, Alex didn't put a foot wrong, steadily improved his lap times and provided good technical feedback to his engineers."

Yoong ended the day in 20th place, ahead of team-mate Mark Webber and the BAR of former world champion Jacques Villeneuve. His best lap of 1m15.564s was just two seconds down on the fastest time set by Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello. Webber, in contrast, struggled with the handling of his car but is hoping to get it right for qualifying.

"We spent time trying to get a balance on both types of Michelins, but it's just not happening at the moment," he said. "We'll get a bit more time tomorrow morning to fine-tune the set-up, though, and that should see times improve."