Spain Preview Quotes: BAR

Takuma Sato: "Barcelona is one of the team's favourite circuits because for two consecutive years we have held the lap record - which is something very special. I always enjoy driving there as it is a high-speed and challenging circuit. We take the very high-speed turns at over 250kms, putting nearly 4.5G on the body, which is a great feeling in an F1 car. After re-surfacing in January, the track was initially 20 seconds a lap slower, however it seems to have improved now and we were able to do some useful development work at the recent test there. Unfortunately off-line is still quite slippery, and we are not sure how much overtaking will be possible during the race, so Qualifying will be a great challenge. I am really looking forward to it, especially following our great result in Imola and I believe that it will be another very close Grand Prix weekend.

"Barcelona is a very historic city and I have been lucky to visit it a few times. It is interesting to see the architecture, eat lots of good food and see all of the monuments, but most importantly it is the venue of a great Grand Prix!"

Gil De Ferran, Sporting Director: "Besides the issues we are currently dealing with off the race track, we are very optimistic going into the Spanish Grand Prix. It was clear that we had a good race with both cars in Imola and since then we have been able to make further progress during our two-day test in Mugello, where we ran over 2500kms and extensively tested further aerodynamic developments. If you also bear in mind the very successful test we had in Barcelona prior to the San Marino GP, where Jenson broke Taku's lap record, it all seems to be conspiring towards another strong showing, where hopefully we will again be challenging for victory."

Shuhei Nakamoto, Engineering Director, Honda Racing Development: "We'll be looking to build on our strong performance at Imola, and have good reason to be positive after another pleasing test in Mugello."