Super Aguri encouraged after double finish

Japanese driver Takuma Sato had qualified in tenth position, making it to the final shootout for the first time in super Aguri's short history.

Sato was unable to stay in the top ten in the race, dropping down to 12th after struggling with the balance of his car.

Despite that, the Japanese driver was encouraged by the team's strong performance, and is hoping for another good showing in Malaysia in three weeks' time.

"It is a positive start to the season, with two reliable cars finishing the race," said Sato. "I had quite an exciting start and first lap amongst the pack, which I enjoyed. But with the differing track conditions, I was struggling a bit with the balance of the car which meant that we could not make the most of it.

"But I take this as a positive learning experience and something that we shall have to work on from here. During my second stop we lost some time and that affected our finishing position.

"That was unfortunate, but I think we've shown good performance and made a very solid start, so I am looking forward to having another good race in Malaysia."

Teammate Anthony Davidson endured a troubled day right from the start, the Briton's car nearly stalling when the lights went off.

He then made contact with Spyker's Adrian Sutil, his car suffering damage and Davidson himself injuring his upper back.

But despite the problems, the Briton managed to carry on and finish his first Formula One race at the fourth attempt.

"The car went into anti-stall at the start, which is such a shame as I didn't go anywhere, so obviously I was then in last place as we went into turn one," he said. "I collected myself and thought that maybe I'd get some early positions back.

"I went round the outside of one of the Spykers and they hit me quite heavily, even though I thought I'd given them enough room.

"The car got pitched into the air and landed very heavily and I hurt my upper back. The jolt also winded me a lot making talking on the radio difficult.

"I think that we've got to work on our pace for the next race, so we need to do some more long runs and understand what happens to the balance during the test in Sepang.

"My car suffered a lot of damage, the whole right side of the bodywork was gone, the floor's broken, and I must have lost a major amount of downforce and that obviously slows you down a lot. It was a fight, but I got to the end of the race and saw my first Grand Prix chequered flag."