Tough day for European Minardi F3000.

In common with the rest of the competitors in the FIA International F3000 Championship, European Minardi drivers Alex Muller and Alex Sperafico experienced first-hand today the unpredictable nature of British weather as they progressed through Friday's two 45-minute practice and qualifying sessions.

On a circuit that was initially wet, but dried quickly as the afternoon wore on, Muller and Sperafico worked hard to establish a good handling balance for their respective chassis in the rapidly changing conditions.

The young German was unable to eliminate a persistent understeer problem with his car, however, and ended the afternoon in 17th place on the grid.

Muller said: "In session one, when it was wet, the car was quite good, then as the track started to dry, we maybe should have gone to slicks sooner than we did rather than sticking with wets. We were lucky the weather stayed dry for the second session and we were able to use slicks throughout. The run we did on the first set was okay, then we changed the car and improved it, but also had a mechanical grip problem that compromised our performance."

"I spun on a section of the track that was still wet on my third set of tyres, and just wasn't able to improve my lap time on the final run. The last time I raced here was 1998, also in a F3000 car, and I finished sixth, so maybe I will have similar luck tomorrow. I like typical English weather, so I am hoping for rain in the race."

Sperafico, sporting a newly painted helmet in honour of Brazil's recent victory in the World Cup and working with new race engineer, Alex Zoechling, improved steadily, but was prevented from setting what would likely have been his quickest time of the day when the gearbox on his car failed late in the second session. He will line up 19th for the start of tomorrow's race.

"Today's result was not quite what I had hoped for, but I am still learning the circuits, and Silverstone is another one I have not raced on before," noted Alex Sperafico. "We were able to put dry tyres near the end of the first session, and then worked on improving the dry set-up during the second session. Disappointingly, we couldn't get the car balanced as well as I would have liked, and the changes we made didn't really do anything much to cure the understeer."

"I just tried to set the best time I could with the car we had, but unfortunately, with just a few minutes of the final session remaining, I found I couldn't select second and third gears any longer, so there was no chance to improve my time further. I would prefer it if the weather was dry for the race tomorrow, but if it rains, it will be good experience for me, and could also make for a more unpredictable result."

Richard Salisbury - Team Manager, European Minardi F3000 - concluded: "Silverstone is a challenging circuit at the best of times, and today's changeable weather, ranging from heavy rain to drying conditions, didn't make the job any easier. Unfortunately, neither 'Alex' had a particularly good afternoon, Muller's car suffering with a mechanical grip problem on the drying track in the second session, when all the day's fastest times were set, while Sperafico experienced a gearbox problem with only six minutes left."

"As a result, they're not in good positions on the grid, but with the weather so unpredictable here, anything is possible in the race. As ever, the aim for European Minardi must be to score points."