Legge upbeat despite early set back.

British racer Katherine Legge was in upbeat mood despite seeing her first run in a Formula One car come to premature end at the Vallelunga circuit in Italy.

The 25-year old saw her stint behind the wheel come to a halt when she was caught out by the traction control on the PS05 and went off the circuit, causing minor damage to the front of the car before the decision was taken to postpone her test until Wednesday due to the failing light and falling temperatures.

However Toyota Atlantic front-runner Legge, who was becoming the first woman to test an F1 machine since Giovanna Amati attempted to qualify a Brabham back in 1992, refused to be too downbeat about the way the day had come to an end - preferring to put it behind her and instead look forward to the resumption of her test tomorrow.

"I'm not really disappointed, I'm excited about tomorrow," she told Crash.net. "It's just of those things that you have to learn the hard way I guess - maybe I should have researched my traction control a bit more!

"I basically lifted out of the traction control and that meant it didn't work any more - I didn't know that before, but now I do. It's one of the things that you have to learn, but your mind is so caught up with the various different things that are new when you step into a Formula One car.

"Tomorrow, I'll be running in the warmest part of the day and, hopefully, I can do some laps in the morning and then go for some timed laps in the afternoon when the temperature has risen a bit."

Legge proved to be the centre of attention on the second day of the four day test session, with regular test driver Chanoch Nissany and fellow F1 debutants Juan Caceres and Davide Rigon more or less undisturbed by a large media presence, but admitted she was looking forward to a quieter day at the circuit on her second day of running.

"It's quite difficult to concentrate when you have 30-odd cameras in your face," she said, "but the publicity is good for myself, it's good for Paul Stoddart, Minardi and for Ozjet. However, it'll be nice to be a little more obscure tomorrow."

Day three of the test will see Legge out on track alongside Nissany who will continue his ongoing programme with the team.

Testing times - Vallelunga (day two):

1. Davide RigonMinardi-Cosworth 1min 22.57secs
2. Juan CaceresMinardi-Cosworth 1min 27.30secs
3. Chanoch NissanyMinardi-Cosworth 1min 28.54secs
4. Katherine LeggeMinardi-Cosworth No time

All times unofficial - courtesy Minardi