Tonio Liuzzi, however, again had to settle for a spot
behind the improving
Scott Speed, although he will hope to reverse that trend in China.
Neither driver has raced at Shanghai before, but Liuzzi will at least have the advantage of prior track knowledge, having driven there in his capacity as reserve for
Red Bull Racing in 2005.
The team was alone in opting not to test between the Italian Grand Prix and the three 'flyaway' rounds, allowing Liuzzi to appear in a Red Bull Racing car for the second time this year at
Jerez, where he helped the team evaluate tyres and set-up options for the remaining rounds.
Super Aguri F1 - Takuma Sato (#22), Sakon Yamamoto (#23):
Unlike its tail-end rival, Super Aguri prepared for the Asian flyways by running Takuma Sato and Sakon Yamamoto at the
Silverstone group test. The pair conducted comprehensive development work on all areas of the SA06 and completed a total of 207 laps and 1055 kilometres between them.
Sato heads to Shanghai having contested both previous Chinese grands prix, and therefore able to help the team in its inevitable quest for the right set-up. With the SIC requiring efficiency as opposed to out-and-out downforce, the team will start from the basis of a Hockenheim set-up, but with the tyres expected to have a slightly easier time.
“Shanghai is a unique circuit, which is challenging and quite difficult from a visibility point of view, especially turns one to two and onto turn three, which is an interesting one," Sato said, "Before the back straight, there is a high banking section which is quite exciting to go through, and it is important as you are going into the long straight which has heavy braking and a few overtaking opportunities. The fact that the race is only one week before Suzuka means that it is incredibly important for us to have a good race in China and for us to keep up the good momentum for the Japanese Grand Prix.”
