Takuma Sato finished eleventh in the French Grand Prix after two brief off-track excursions prevented him from capitalising on an excellent fourth on the grid.

Taku maintained fifth spot in the early going, before pitting for the first of his three scheduled stops on lap 15 and rejoining the race in seventh. Despite dropping back down the order, the Japanese driver’s strategy was looking very strong and even made an opportunistic passing manoeuvre on Rubens Barrichello at the Adelaide Hairpin. However, two offs later in the race ended his chances of a points finish.

　 "I didn’t have a perfect start as I was overtaken by Barrichello, but the first part of the race was quite exciting for me as I was mixing it with Jarno Trulli and Rubens. After I tried to overtake Trulli, I suffered with lack of grip and struggled with traction, which got progressively worse throughout the race. It’s a shame that I wasn’t able to score any points today, but I think that we will perform even better at the British Grand Prix next week."

　 Takuma Sato out-qualified BAR-Honda team-mate Jenson Button to take a season’s best fourth on the grid for the French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours.

Ninth to run in qualifying following Michelin’s decision to withdraw its cars from the preceding race at Indianapolis, Takuma drove a very clean lap to set a time of 1min 14.655secs and continue the good form he showed in morning practice session. He will start the race sandwiched between the Ferraris of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello.

　 "I enjoyed my lap today and the car performed well. We have split the Renaults and the McLarens, so that is a real bonus for the team. I am very happy for everyone who has worked extremely hard in the run-up to this weekend and for carrying over the momentum from the last two races to this high downforce and very different circuit. It puts us in a good position for the race tomorrow and I am really looking forward to being on the second row of the grid - and right in the middle of the action."

　 Takuma Sato contributed to a productive opening to the French Grand Prix weekend for the BAR-Honda team, setting the 14th fastest lap of free practice at Magny-Cours.

Taku completed his usual tyre evaluation work, but got a first chance to work with the 007’s new aero package during a race weekend. Positive results at the Jerez test last week translated into a sixth fastest lap in the morning’s first session, before a different development programme saw Taku slip back to 14th in the afternoon. Honda has also provided a latest-spec RA005E engine - with reduced friction and a higher rev range - at the start of another two-race spell.

　 "We have carried over all of the good work that we completed in testing to the practice sessions today, concentrating on race set-up during our longer runs this afternoon and working through our tyre programme. The car seems to have good balance, similar to the way we were running in North America, and the very different high-downforce aero package that we have for this race appears to be working well. Our data is showing very positive signs."