Davidson retires as brakes fail on him after small collision

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SUPER AGURI F1 TEAM’s fighting spirit was challenged once again as the team ensured a difficult race today at the Shanghai International Circuit. The changeable weather and track conditions during the 2007 Chinese Grand Prix produced a few surprise results which have dramatically changed the order of the Constructors’ Championship with only one race to go this season.

Takuma Sato “It was an exciting but tough race for us. I made a good start, gaining a few positions and it was exciting overtaking in the wet conditions. But within a few laps we had a mechanical problem and from then on the car was bouncing quite a lot. I immediately radioed to the team, but there was nothing we could do. With the changing conditions I was able to catch a few cars ahead, but we just weren’t quick enough to overtake. Thankfully we were able to finish, but the car handling was far from ideal which made it an even more difficult race for me.”

Anthony Davidson “It is a disappointing end to the weekend. We had a very poor start and Rubens was able to quite easily overtake us into turn one. I managed to get back past and fight with a few other cars on lap one, but then going into turn one on lap two Rubens tagged my right rear and we both spun. I had damage to my body work which covered my brake duct sending the temperatures sky high. This then gives you a long brake pedal, leaving you only with the front brakes so I came in to the pits for the guys to remove the damaged body work and see if that would get more air to the right rear brake duct, but it wasn’t to be. The brakes never came back so instead of putting myself and the team in danger I decided to retire from the race.”

Aguri Suzuki, Team Principal “This was another tough race for us in difficult conditions. Taku did a good job and it is a shame that Anthony had a coming together at beginning of the race with Barrichello. I would like to thank everyone in the team for continuing to push hard and I would also like to congratulate both Toro Rosso drivers who did a good job today. We have only one more race this season, so we shall continue to keep up our fighting spirit and try to replicate the result that we had last year in Brazil.”