Minardi to compete in Spain after failures.

After an 'incident-packed' second day of action at the Circuit de Catalunya, both Minardi cars will line up on the Spanish Grand Prix grid on Sunday.

The problems began when Webber suffered a front wing assembly failure during his first run of the morning, which precluded any further running of his car and led the team to investigate the reason for the problem. As the team had brought two specifications of front wing to Barcelona, it was decided to withdraw the earlier type, which had failed, and concentrate on the alternative.

After an 'incident-packed' second day of action at the Circuit de Catalunya, both Minardi cars will line up on the Spanish Grand Prix grid on Sunday.

The problems began when Webber suffered a front wing assembly failure during his first run of the morning, which precluded any further running of his car and led the team to investigate the reason for the problem. As the team had brought two specifications of front wing to Barcelona, it was decided to withdraw the earlier type, which had failed, and concentrate on the alternative.

Despite the team hoping that that would be the end of its problems, Yoong suffered a non-related front wing incident during the afternoon qualifying session, after heavily impacting the infamous kerbs around the Barcelona track. Both incidents brought out the red flags while debris was cleared, but no driver was hurt.

At this point, the decision was taken that neither Minardi car should continue with qualifying until a full investigation had been carried out and, after a technical review of both assemblies, the team dispatched all its wings back to its factory in Italy, where a modification was carried out overnight.

"The car ran well yesterday and I was looking forward to a very productive Saturday when, on the first flying lap of the morning, my car suffered a front wing failure," Webber said, "The team immediately withdrew that specification of front wing. We then made good progress in qualifying; however, the team's decision not to take any further part in qualifying after Alex's incident and to send parts back to the factory for modification was undoubtedly the correct one. It's a shame, though, because I know I could have gone quicker on my last run."

The two drivers qualified on the back row of the grid, with Webber in 21st and Yoong making the cut, after his non-qualification at Imola, in 22nd.

"The front wing failure on Mark's car today, and the subsequent failure on Alex's car, though not related, have caused me to make the decision to carry out an extensive modification on the components concerned at our Faenza factory overnight," team boss Paul Stoddart said on Saturday night.

"While this is a precautionary measure, as we feel the problem with Alex's car was due to impact damage with the kerb, I believe it is the only responsible course of action for the team to take. It's times like this where it helps to have an airline at your disposal, and I'm confident that, despite the necessity for Faenza personnel to work all night, we will be able to take part in tomorrow's warm-up and race. I'm proud of the effort Mark and Alex put in today, both of them recording their best times of the weekend in the most difficult of circumstances."

Read More