Super Aguri duo positive after practice

The Briton finished in a promising ninth position, just seven tenths of a second off the fastest time of the day.

"I am happy with our day's work," said Davidson, who was involved in a bizarre incident, when he crashed into Toro Rosso's Tonio Liuzzi as the Briton exited his garage in the afternoon session. 

"We found a good balance for the new tyres close to the end of the day and I'm obviously pleased to be so high up on the timesheets.

"We found some quite big differences between the tyre options and I think that every team will find them a challenge for the rest of the weekend."

Sato was also encouraged by his day's work despite finishing down in 20th position.

"The day was quite interesting because the two tyre options behaved differently, so we need to analyze the large amount of data we were able to collect today," he said.

"We also ran some new aero developments and there were a few good points from them. The car ran reliably and with no problems, so I think that it was a positive day."