Sato encouraged despite retirement

The new car, making its race debut this weekend, allowed Sato to fight with the Midlands both in qualifying and in the race.

The Japanese driver, however, succumbed to a mechanical problem on lap 39.

"The debut of the SA06 in Germany has been positive and the car performed very well in qualifying yesterday," said Sato. "We were expecting a little bit more in terms of race pace today, so we are a little bit disappointed, but it is a big step up from the SA05 so this will come in time.

"It was exciting to be able to race with the Midland's and in the second stint I was still ahead of one of them. In the end I had a gearbox related oil issue so I had to retire from the race, but because this is a new car it is not really surprising that we encountered some kind of problem.

"Although it was obviously a disappointing race today, overall it was a good weekend for us, not easy, but definitely a good weekend."

Rookie Sakon Yamamoto had a poor race debut, first having to start from the pitlane and then suffering a drive shaft failure on the opening lap.

"I am disappointed not to have raced here today as I only completed one lap," he said. "On the positive side, we have collected more data than we had for the SA06 today, so we shall study this before we arrive in Hungary.

"The SA06 is easier to drive than the SA05, so I hope that I can continue to adapt well and learn more about the car for the race in Hungary next week."