Minardi driver, Alex Yoong, returned to the cockpit on Friday for the fourth and final day of this week's Formula One™ at the Monza circuit. Despite morning rain, the Faenza squad completed its technical programme by early afternoon.

Yoong continued the chassis set-up work and software evaluation that has been the focus of the team's attention ahead of next weekend's Italian Grand Prix, and also spent some time carrying out simulated qualifying runs, recording a highly creditable fastest lap of 1.26.540 in the process.

The Minardi team now goes into the final Grand Prix of the European season encouraged by the useful information gained during this intensive test session.

"It was good to do a few qualifying runs today and to get my head back into driving the car," said Yoong. "I was pleased I managed to do some dry running, because it looked as if it was going to be very wet for the whole morning. Luckily, it dried up towards the end of the session and we got some runs in."

"Overall, it has been a satisfying four-day test session for the team," added race engineer Alex Varnava. "This morning, we found something we believe has contributed to the technical problems we've experienced in the last couple of days, so that's a pleasing development.

"Alex did well today - he settled in and produced some consistent laps. Towards the end, he put in his very best times, which were quite comparable with those Mark (Webber) recorded yesterday."

Yoong will return to racing at Monza after sitting out the last two rounds of the season. This followed his failure to qualify at three Grands Prix this year.