Character-building time for Minardi men.

European Minardi F3000 drivers Kristian Kolby and Justin Keen experienced what can only be described as a "character-building" weekend during the final FIA F3000 International Championship round of the year at the Monza circuit.

After struggling to find competitive levels of straight-line performance in qualifying, Kolby and Keen experienced further difficulties during today's race. Kolby's car was fitted with a new engine overnight, but the British-based Dane then encountered chassis balance problems during the event. He soldiered on, however, to finish in a creditable 12th position at the chequered flag. Keen, whose poor qualifying form on Friday was later traced to a damaged rear wishbone on his car, found himself struggling with a badly understeering chassis in the race and retired on lap six.

European Minardi F3000 team personnel will now be taking a short, and well deserved, break before participating in the Imola and Misano tests, in October.

"It turned out to be a frustrating afternoon, as I found myself fighting the car for much of the race - it handled decently on light fuel loads, but not at all well with more fuel on board," said Korby after finishing in twelfth. "I moved up the order in the opening few laps, but as soon as the race settled down, the engine was hitting the limiter on the straights, so other drivers could overtake easily. If another 10 cars in front of me had retired, I would have been happy; as it happened, though, they didn't."

Justin Keen had a very short race: "I got a good start, passing a number of other cars, and was up to 12th early on in the race, but the chassis was understeering really badly, to the point that I thought something had broken in the suspension. I hung on as best I could, but just found myself slipping down the order. In the end, I decided to stop to have the problem investigated, and decided it was not worth continuing. It's been a disappointing weekend."

Team manager Richard Salisbury gave his take on the day's events: "Justin made a good start and seemed to be going well in the opening laps, but his car developed a problem that caused the handling to deteriorate to the point where he felt he was unable to continue."

"Kristian was also apparently struggling with handling difficulties, but hung on to finish 12th. We'll have a close look at both cars over the coming weeks with a view to sorting out any problems that may exist, and then use the F3000 tests at Imola and Misano in October to commence European Minardi's preparations for 2003. This has not been an easy year for the team, but we'll aim to rejoin the championship as a stronger and more competitive organization next season."