Salo Encouraged by Practice Pace

Finn Mika Salo was encouraged by his pace in today's practice session for the Belgian Grand Prix after setting the 10th quickest time of the day with his Toyota.

"We completed our programme and the car handles well in the high-speed corners," said Salo after the session. "Today's result is encouraging but it is only Friday and we have to stay focused to perform as this for the remainder of the weekend."

The 35-year old Toyota driver, who announced his plans to retire from Formula One at the end of the year, praised the changes to the Spa circuit and claimed the Belgian track was now better suited for their Michelin-shod TF102 car.

"They have done a good job on the track surface and the circuit is not as bumpy as it used to be," he said. "It definitely suits our car better, and we must now focus on improving the car's balance in low-speed corners."

Teammate Allan McNish, who it was announced will not continue with the Japanese squad next year, completed a good day for the Cologne-based squad, posting the 11th quickest time.

"Today was obviously a bit compromised for everybody due to the lack of running time but we managed to go through the main parts of our programme," he said. "We completed mechanical set-up work and tyre comparison, and we had two productive sessions overall.

"The test we had here last year made us think that the car could be quite strong here and, thankfully, it felt that way today."