Friday March 1st, 2002

Rookie Takuma Sato was excited after making his Grand Prix debut with the Jordan team in Friday's practice for the Australian Grand Prix at the Melbourne circuit.

The 25-year old Jordan driver, 2001 British Formula Three champion, enjoyed a trouble-free day in his first official outing with the Silverstone-based squad. Sato, who posted the 13th quickest time today, was slower than teammate Giancarlo Fisichella, but he was happy with his progress anyway.

"I must say I am pretty happy," said Sato. "It was very exciting to have my first outing at a Grand Prix weekend and overall I am very pleased at how it went. I lost about ten minutes of running time towards the end of the second session due to a problem with my steering column, but otherwise things ran smoothly."

Fisichella, who returns to the Jordan team this season after four years at Benetton, was the fastest of the Honda-powered cars, finishing in ninth place after losing six places in the second session. The Italian, however, was pleased with his work.

"Not a bad start to the weekend at all," Fisichella said. "The first session, when I finished third in the timings, went very well. In the second session I tried some different set-ups, concentrating mainly on race configuration."

Published at 06:13:46 GMT