| United States Grand Prix News: |
| While Ferrari enjoyed total superiority in qualifying on Saturday, looming behind them in their mirrors at the start of Sunday's race will be the BAR of Sato. With his reputation for recklessness fully enhanced of late, the team admit they are wary of the 'unpredictable' Japanese youngster who clashed with Rubens Barrichello three weeks ago at the Nurburgring.
"We have got Sato there and he can be unpredictable," acknowledged a cautious Ross Brawn. Sato, though, is revelling in his role of Ferrari agitator-in-chief. "To win any grand prix would mean everything. Trying to beat the Ferraris will be very difficult as we have seen so far this season, but that is our aim and we will try," he said. "Ferrari are always very strong in the race but we have improved our consistency on long runs. We are pretty much hoping we have closed the gap and thats what we will have to do tomorrow afternoon." Describing the flying lap that netted him third place, Sato said: "On the main straight, I struggled with the wind. It was a great lift up for the team. After having a difficult free practice yesterday, it seems we're back on the pace. I was very comfortable, and the car was very good." Sato will start the race alongside his team-mate Jenson Button who grabbed fourth place despite struggling with oversteer. "When Taku did his run, obviously, he was running after me, and the circuit was cleaner. He was running more wing than me. They said to try it, and we did. It was pretty awful, actually. Too much oversteer." "I would have thought we would have learned from Taku's run, but obviously we didn't. We had a lot of oversteer in the car, and struggled quite a bit." Having played second fiddle to Michael Schumacher in 2004, and indeed throughout his Ferrari career, pole position was a deserved reward for Rubens Barrichello on a weekend when he has, to date, comprehensively out-performed his illustrious team-mate. It's a wonderful time for me," said Barrichello, who gave Schumacher an comfortable afternoon last weekend at Canada. "There are loads of Brazilians out there and I had a positive run going out. It was nice because I could almost here them shouting. |
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| The US Grand Prix will take place annually on a permanent, 2.55-mile (4.076-kilometer) circuit to be built at IMS the famed Brickyard of Indy 500 lore part of the multiyear agreement between the two parties. The date for the inaugural USGP at Indianapolis has recently been announced as September 24, 2000, to follow the mid-June Canadian GP and the well-known Memorial Day (late-May) running of the Indianapolis 500. |