Lucky Strike B.A.R Honda’s Jacques Villenueve crossed the finish line in eighth position while Takuma Sato and Giancarlo Fisichella (DHL Jordan Honda) finished ninth and 13th, respectively, in a race of high attrition where nine cars failed to reach the end.
Olivier Panis, another B.A.R. Honda retired from the race on lap nine due to problem with the clutch bearing.
" We will be ready to fight again in two weeks," said Shuhei Nakamoto, race and test team manager of Honda Racing Development.
" We didn’t achieve what we wanted to but that’s racing and it’s up to us to bounce back. Looking at the positives, three of the four Honda-powered cars made it home in extremely difficult conditions and we managed to get as much as we could from the engine without any problems," he said.
David Richards, rally supremo of B.A.R. Honda Racing, said prior to the Petronas Malaysian GP that they hope to improve the performance of the engine in the next five or six races.
" The program on the engine is to improve its performance in the next five or six races, just steadily, bit by bit and the improvement will come from increasing the revs of the engine. We will have significant change in the middle of the year and that’s targeted in Canada, in Montreal," he said.
The Jordan duo had a coming together on lap three as Sato, one of only two Asian F-1 drivers — the other being Malaysian Alex Yoong — collided with Fisichella while they were chasing a Toyota immediately ahead. Sato later apologized to Fisichella.
The 25-year old Japanese has an inspiring tale to tell as he was able to convince his parents to allow him to take up karting when he was 19.
" I wanted to get involved in racing but my parents discouraged me. There was a Suzuka training school back home that took drivers below 20 years old. It was my last chance and I managed to convince my parents to join," said Sato in fluent English.
He later went to England to compete in the British Formula 3. Sato was the first Japanese driver to win the British F3, the European Marlboro Masters, the Macau GP and British GP international support race.