A gearbox oil fire for Alex Yoong aside, the Minardi team enjoyed two productive sessions during the opening day of practice for this Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix.

Drivers Mark Webber and Alex Yoong were scheduled to work through their normal Friday technical programmes, including the important tyre comparison runs, but only Webber was able to complete this part of the day's activities, as Yoong's second session ended slightly prematurely when he was forced to return to the pits with an apparent gearbox problem.

On his arrival, there was a small fire at the rear of the car that proved difficult to extinguish and resulted in extinguisher dust permeating a large section of the team's garage.

"It generally went okay today," commented Yoong, who was twentieth. "We were running through our normal Friday programme and then we had a problem with the gearbox, which forced us to stop before we were able to do our new-tyre runs.

"That was a bit frustrating, as we're going to have to rely on Mark's data to choose which tyre to run, but I'm sure we'll be able to make the correct decision and have a productive day tomorrow."

Nonetheless, Webber and Yoong made good progress fine-tuning the performance and handling of their cars around the challenging 5.864-km Suzuka track and are optimistic the trend will continue tomorrow.

"It was pretty good for us today," said Webber who managed the eighteenth best time. "We got through our programme, tested both types of tyre and gathered some useful data for tomorrow's running.

"We will need to take a good look at what's best for us in terms of tyres and things like wing levels, but I really enjoyed tackling this circuit for the first time in a Formula One™ car, and am now looking forward to tomorrow."

Team principal Paul Stoddart added: "After a strong performance from both drivers in today's two practice sessions, sadly a gearbox oil fire on Alex's car resulted in a large amount of fire retardant dust infiltrating our garages, and in particular, our computer equipment.

"While every attempt will be made to clean everything, sadly, the dust managed to get into every nook and cranny. That aside, the performance of the cars today, and in particular that of the tyres, indicates there is good reason for the team to look forward to a competitive weekend here at Suzuka."