Minardi Suffer from Bad Timing

Changing conditions through qualifying - normally Minardi's best chance of moving up the grid - conspired in Japan to make the Italian team's effort even harder than usual, the team said.

"Sadly, neither of our drivers was able to take advantage of this morning's changeable weather conditions," team chief Paul Stoddart said after qualifying. "Unlike qualifying for last year's French Grand Prix at Magny Cours, when rapidly changing track conditions played to our advantage, today the weather and timing just weren't with us.

"When Gimmi [Bruni] went out for his qualifying run, the surface was still sufficiently wet that the only choice was to fit Bridgestone shallow wet tyres, but with the circuit drying quickly, the drivers who followed were able to qualify on slicks."

Hungarian Szolt Baumgartner failed to set a time in either sessions, having first spun off in pre-qualifying and then was not ready in time for the qualifying session.

"It's a shame that I had a problem in the pre-qualifying run because my first sector time was not too bad," Baumgartner, who starts today's race from the final row, said. "The track conditions were tricky, as the surface was drying, but still quite wet in places.

"The car had some oversteer in it and when the back end slid in that corner, I was just a little too late catching it. We've been a bit unlucky this weekend. This is a very challenging circuit, I have not run here before, and the track conditions have been particularly tricky. I just hope we can have a good race this afternoon."