Italian Grand Prix — free practice
September 2, 2005

Preparations for the Italian Grand Prix got under way today at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza with the team aiming to build on the productive work carried out during last week’s Monza test. The drivers made solid progress during the course of the day and were reasonably satisfied with their times. At the start of the second session, Kiesa’s car stopped on the track due to a failure, costing the Danish half of the day’s track time. Monteiro spent the two sessions testing the new EJ15B, adding more mileage to the car and set an encouraging time of 1.23.994, which was the quickest of the three cars. The team will be running two EJ15B cars at the Belgian Grand Prix next week and three at the Brazilian GP.

Free practice 1

Tiago Monteiro (EJ15B/02)	12th	1:25.134	12 laps
Nicolas Kiesa (EJ15/04)	13th	1:25.374	23 laps
Narain Karthikeyan (EJ15/01)	15th	1:25.611	08 laps

Free practice 2

Tiago Monteiro (EJ15B/02)	20th	1:23.994	14 laps
Narain Karthikeyan (EJ15/01)	21st	1:24.202	18 laps
Nicolas Kiesa (EJ15/04)	25th	no time	1 lap

Team quotes on the Italian Grand Prix Friday free practice sessions
Narain Karthikeyan
“It is a shame that I do not drive the new car. I tested it last week here at Monza and I could feel the difference straight away this morning. It was especially obvious in the braking zones and in the fast corners. The car balance got better at the end of the afternoon session when the track surface was improving. I am looking forward to driving again tomorrow as I really enjoy this circuit.”

Tiago Monteiro
“It was a good first day. We went through our tyre choice programme and car set-up. As we noticed last week, the new car is reliable, as we haven’t encountered any problem today. The gain is not huge but we are closing the gap with the cars in front. Every gain is a gain. As we have already said, Monza is maybe not the best track to introduce the new car because of its low downforce configuration. Spa and the remaining races should suit our cars better but it is still an improvement. Now we have to work on the stability for the rest of the weekend.”

Nicolas Kiesa
“The first session this morning went very well. The car was getting better and better with all the different changes we made. Near the end, we wanted to confirm these changes and we could see from the times that they were working. We wanted to make further progress for our race specification in the afternoon but unfortunately the car stopped on the first lap. I am a bit disappointed but it is nobody’s fault.”

Sporting director: Adrian Burgess
“Today went as planned apart from the failure we had this afternoon with Nicolas. It is a shame for him and this did not help with our tyre information. However, with the test here last week, I think we know which tyre we are going to choose tonight. We are reasonably happy with the performance of the B-car. We have added more mileage to it and it has proven to be reliable. For sure, there is more to come with the development of the car. Considering where we are with our strategy for tomorrow and Sunday we are in good shape.”