MF1 slip up as Super Aguri move forward.

Having caused a few tongues to wag courtesy of their practice pace at the Nurburgring, MF1 Racing slipped back to the tail of the field following the two sessions for the Spanish Grand Prix.

Indeed, Christijan Albers was unable to explain why both he and Tiago Monteiro were so far off the pace compared to the Nurburgring, but both drivers are expecting some improvements to come ahead of qualifying.

"It's going to be a long night, because we are further off than we expected," the Dutchman said having posted the 25th fastest time. "So we need to work really hard to get on the pace for tomorrow. We need to find out why the speed is not there.

"Everyone here is doing a good job, and I'm confident we'll get it solved, but that doesn't mean we are happy, because we clearly need to improve. The lap time is just not good enough right now, and we've got to get that worked out for tomorrow."

With test driver Giorgio Mondini in 22nd place and Monteiro down in 27th place, the door was left open for Super Aguri to capitalise, something Takuma Sato grabbed readily by slotting into 26th place ahead of the Portuguese. It was a performance that pleased the Japanese driver.

"We did not do much running this morning due to the weather conditions, but towards the end of that session and by the end of the second session we had completed our full programme. We did some performance runs and it was encouraging to see that the balance of the car has improved and that the lap time and speed was much better, so we are happy with what we have been able to achieve today."

Franck Montagny however endured a far tougher day with the Frenchman being hit by a mechanical problem in the morning session and then struggling with the set-up in the afternoon, something that left him two and a half seconds behind his team mate.

"It was a very difficult day for me. This morning I completed only three laps because we had a hydraulic problem. This afternoon we did not find a good set-up for the car; it was very difficult to control, a lot of snap oversteer and many more issues. I do believe that we will find something right as Taku is fast here, but I think that we have a hard weekend coming."

Indeed, team boss Aguri Suzuki admitted he was concerned with the problems that have blighted his cars in recent races, but was nonetheless encouraged that they have been able to get the gap down to their nearest rivals.

"We haven't been lucky since we came back to Europe but we need to solve the problem as soon as we can," he said. "The team has been working so hard to improve the speed of the car and the motivation within the team is amazingly high. I am little concerned about the problems we have been having, but I am sure that we will be able to solve these issues come the race on Sunday."