Friday March 29th, 2002

Minardi drivers Mark Webber and Alex Yoong completed a productive day for the small Anglo-Italian squad in today's practice for the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Both Australian Webber and Malaysian Yoong were in action for the first time at the Interlagos circuit, and they finished 20th and 22nd respectively after what team boss Paul Stoddart described as a useful day for the Faenza-based squad.

"This was a useful day at the office with both cars and drivers completing full programmes in preparation for tomorrow's qualifying session," said Stoddart. "Alex lost 0.6 sec in the final sector of his last flying lap this afternoon and, if not for that, both drivers would have been less than three seconds off the fastest time registered today.

"We're pleased with that, considering the heavy fuel loads being run in order to work on race set-up. We now look forward to a solid qualifying session tomorrow."

Minardi are currently in seventh place in the Constructors' Championship, after Webber finished in fifth place at the season opening Australian Grand Prix, giving Minardi their first points since 1999.

Published at 20:38:55 GMT