10.07.2004 Minardi missed the first session as a mark of respect, the team stunned by the overnight loss of their popular Sporting Director, John Walton: Minardi F1 qualifying report from Silverstone

Minardi staff today did what they knew their Sporting Director, John Walton, would have wanted them to do, and that was to get on with the business of preparing for tomorrow’s British Grand Prix.

After receiving the profoundly sad news from Team Principal, Paul Stoddart, that John had passed away in hospital overnight following a serious heart attack early last Tuesday morning in London, team members took the decision, as a mark of respect, not to run in Saturday’s opening practice session.

After that, however, it was a case of concentrating on the business at hand, Zsolt Baumgartner and Gianmaria Bruni working with their engineers to fine-tune the handling of their cars in qualifying and race trim. 

As during Friday's two practice sessions, the little Italian team made useful progress for tomorrow’s race.

GIANMARIA BRUNI  Best lap: 1 min 23.437 secs  Position: 18th

“For me, it was generally a good lap. It should have been faster, but I lost a couple of tenths in the Complex. To be honest, like everyone on the team, I wasn’t feeling great after the news this morning. I hope I can get my mind clear tomorrow and do a good race for John.”

ZSOLT BAUMGARTNER  Best lap: 1 min 24.117 secs  Position: 19th

“Today is a very sad day for all the team. I have mixed feelings about my qualifying performance. Probably, I could have achieved a better qualifying lap time this afternoon, considering the quicker runs I did this morning, but unfortunately, I made a couple of mistakes. 

"The guys did a fantastic job today, particularly between the two sessions this afternoon, when they had to fix a problem with an anti-roll bar, which was not so easy. Now we’ll aim for a good race tomorrow.”

PAUL STODDART, Team Principal

“Under very difficult circumstances, the Minardi team completed today’s running and will line up P18 and P19 for tomorrow’s British Grand Prix.

"I must confess that our thoughts are with John, and his family and friends, at this extremely sad time.  Tomorrow, however, there will be a serious effort to get two Minardis to the chequered flag in memory of one of the greatest guys in this Paddock.”

Chassis allocation: Bruni (No 20) PS04B/02, Baumgartner (No 21) PS04B/01, Spare car (Bruni) PS04B/03