Salo Gets First Taste Of Bar.

Mika Salo ran with the British American Racing team at Jerez yesterday, as he prepares to fill in for the injured Ricardo Zonta at Imola.


Salo, who parted from Arrows before the 1999 season started, was the first choice as replacement for Zonta, who damaged tendons in his left foot at Interlagos. The Finn was among those listed to partner Villeneuve at F1's newest team this season, but eventually lost out to the man he could replace in round three.


Salo completed 48 laps on day one of the test at Jerez, recording a time of 1min 27.255secs to wind up 13th on the timesheets. But, as the driver pointed out, his main priority was to get acclimatised to the car.


"I spent today getting familiarised with the car, driving as many laps as possible with a full fuel tank.," Salo said, "It's great to be back behind the wheel after a break from driving but, at first, I was enjoying myself too much to get any impression about the car. After three or four laps, though, I was quite surprised to see how quickly I got to do a relatively good lap time. The car is nice and, although I know that sometimes people complain about the power, I have to say that it is still more powerful than anything I have ever driven!"


Salo will continue testing over the three-day stay in Spain, but will only replace Zonta at Imola if the doctors recommend that the Brazilian continue to rest.