Salo Expecting to Struggle in Spain

Mika Salo has predicted that his Toyota team will struggle at this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix, the fifth round of the 2002 season.

The 35-year old Finn, who gave the Japanese squad their first two points with sixth places at the Australian and Brazilian Grands Prix this year, endured a tough weekend in the last race at Imola, with both him and teammate Allan McNish failing to finish the event.

At the Barcelona circuit, the most visited track by the Formula One teams during the first part of the year to carry out their testing work, Salo is expecting to have another tough weekend.

"I think it's going to be a hard race for us," said Salo of the Spanish race. "Our car is still improving, but so are all the other teams'. Barcelona is the one track on the calendar that everyone knows extremely well because so much testing has been done there.

"So it is unlikely that any of the teams ahead of us will have the same set-up problems that affected them early on in the year. In terms of pace, I imagine that we'll qualify somewhere around 16th; that's about where we are at the moment."