Sato bemoans lack of track time

The Super Aguri driver suffered a mechanical failure in the morning session, meaning he could only complete two outings at the new track.

Sato had a productive second session, but he finished at the bottom of the times and admitted the team will need to play catch-up tomorrow.

"We lost a lot of time necessary for the testing you need for a new circuit and because of this we were forced to rush and cut out some of our programme this afternoon," said Sato.

"We had to evaluate the balance on long runs for the different downforce levels as this is very important, but it meant that I was not able to set-up the car as I would have liked to and it was more of a data collecting exercise.

"Hopefully though, with the work that we managed to complete today, we will be able to set-up the car more competitively and have a better day tomorrow."

Teammate Anthony Davidson was only 20th fastest, but the Briton admitted he had enjoyed driving at the Japanese circuit.

"It was a different day for all of us who have not been to the Fuji Speedway before. I enjoyed driving the circuit a lot," he said.

"It is a big challenge, especially the last sector, and it is a tough one for the engineers to work on as well, finding a good balance between top speed and enough grip around the tricky last sector.

"I think that we did some good work today with the long run pace and I am pretty happy with the balance on the car."