Salo struggles but takes seventh

An engine problem, which limited his running in the second session, added to the frustration he felt after his free practice one track time was curtailed following a clash with Takuma Sato. Although the Japanese driver was at fault, Salo was diplomatic in his assessment of the situation.

"I had an incident early in the first session when a car on its installation lap collided with me," he stated. "We then had to repair the steering on my car, which lost a lot of time. We concentrated on setting up the car in the second session, but we had an engine-related problem towards the end preventing us from completing today's programme."

Team-mate Allan McNish had a less eventful session and was reasonably upbeat about the TF102's performance on the smooth track.

"Friday is always a little bit hard to read, but the car was definitely better by the end of the second session," he said. "Traffic is always a major issue round here, and I think that is going to be a big factor for tomorrow in qualifying. I was held up on a couple occasions today, but overall it probably happened to a lot of other people as well."