Sato: Montreal Track 'Not so Exciting'

Jordan driver Takuma Sato said on Friday that the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve held no surprises for him following his first experience of the track in Friday's free practice for the Canadian Grand Prix.

Sato endured a troubled day in practice and eventually ended 19th in the timesheets, but the young Japanese driver claimed sampling the Montreal circuit for the first time had not caused him a problem.

"It is exactly how I thought from the beginning," Sato said. "Basically it needs massive braking to stop speed to take into the corner and it is just on and on and on - there is no high-speed corner.

"It gives you a very good opportunity to have a very exciting race although when you are driving by yourself it is not so exciting."

Sato has come under pressure following a disappointing start to life in Formula One in which he has crashed heavily out of the last two events and also took teammate Giancarlo Fisichella out of the Malaysian Grand Prix.

He used on-board footage and computer games to prepare for the Canadian Grand Prix but did admit that the varying nature of the kerbs at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve took him initially by surprise.

"I expected this because I heard about the circuit before I came here," he added. "I just ran it and found exactly the same thing (as the on-board footage). But it is quite tricky to use the kerbs because they are all different and you sometimes launch the car - you have to be careful."