The 2004 International Formula 3000 Championship began yesterday at the Italian circuit of Imola. It was Super Nova's Alan van der Merwe's first visit to the circuit so he used the thirty-minute practice session getting to know the track. When the qualifying session began Alan was laying in seventh position after his first tyre run with just over half the session remaining. Unfortunately on his second set of tyres he failed to improve his time and dropped down to twelfth at the end of the session. Teammate Patrick Friesacher started the session well but unfortunately on his second set of tyres was impaired by yellow flags and consequently lost the best part of his tyres and finished the forty-minute session in eighth position. Liuzzi in the Arden car starts from pole for tomorrow's 31-lap race followed by Toccacelo and Van Hooydonk.
Patrick Friesacher 1:39.508 (P8)
"I'm not that happy because on the first lap Toccacelo blocked me and then on the second and third lap someone crashed at corner number five and there were yellow flags so I had to slow down. After this I was pushing hard but the tyres had already gone so not a good qualifying session for us."
Alan van der Merwe 1:39.900 (P12)
"It was a bit of an eye-opener really because at Barcelona there were no kerbs and the first time I took a kerb here was a bit of a shock. On the first tyre run I went quite well but on the second one I didn't piece everything together. In theory we could have done a quicker lap but didn't, however I think we'll be stronger and more consistent in the race than the people ahead of us."
Team Principal - David Sears
"During the first qualifying session this season it looked for most of it as if Patrick Friesacher would start from fifth place and Alan van der Merwe in seventh. However on the last set of tyres both drivers had problems with traffic and yellow flags being waved and did not improve their times. Patrick starts now in eighth place on the grid and Alan in twelfth place for tomorrow's race. However the Super Nova team believes that they can draw back some time for both drivers with some super slick pitstops. The whole team is looking forward to tomorrow's race.
