Saturday October 12th, 2002

Japan's Takuma Sato is hoping to score his first Formula One points following his best ever qualifying performance today in front of his home crowd.

Japanese fans had plenty to cheer as local hero Sato, making his Grand Prix debut this season, planted his Honda-powered Jordan on the fourth row with the seventh fastest lap of the session.

After a tough rookie year filled with problems, Sato is looking to end on a high with a point-scoring finish tomorrow.

"I'm so happy. That was my best qualifying result all season and one of my best moments in a Formula One car," said Sato. "The team made a great recovery after a difficult morning with my engine problem. The mechanics did really well and James (Key), my engineer, did a brilliant job.

"The car was good, I was comfortable and drove exactly as I wanted to. I just nailed it. The fan support here is superb, they reacted as if I had won the race and it was just qualifying. Realistically the race is still going to be tough, but my target is to score points."

Teammate Giancarlo Fisichella was impressed with the form of his team after posting the eighth quickest time right behind Sato.

"It's very impressive," admitted Fisichella. "I wouldn't have expected us to be 7th and 8th so it's really good for the team. I'm happy for Takuma because it's his home Grand Prix and he did very well. Unfortunately on my last run the automatic downshift went completely mad and I couldn't improve my time.

"I think there was the possibility to be even better yet, but unfortunately that little problem happened. Anyway, it's been a good day."

Published at 07:47:59 GMT