Belgian F3000 driver David Saelens was thrilled with his one-day Minardi test at Monza yesterday, a ride that had apparently been arranged approximately two years ago.

"I was just given a chance to drive for Minardi, which was promised about two years ago. It was a fantastic experience!" he exclaimed afterwards. "It was just unfortunate that the weather was not as good as it could have been.

"I enjoyed a very good day of testing with no mistakes, despite the poor weather conditions. For me, it has not been easy to drive an F1™ car for the first time in very wet track conditions on one of the fastest circuits, where speeds are above 330kph (205mph). It was definitely quite challenging!

"I became more confident with the car though as the day progressed and was able to build up my speed while helping the engineers with their work. As a result, I am pretty happy with what we have done.

"The difficulty is once you get the taste of Formula One™ you always want more, so I hope I can do further test work in the future. I really like the technical side of F1, and I also enjoy working with the team."

The 27-year-old Belgian set the slowest time of the day - 1.35.156 - over twenty laps, but was the only driver not to run when the track was still dry in the morning. Instead he was limited to just a couple of hours at the wheel once the thunderstorms had eased at around 15.00 local time.

Race engineer Greg Wheeler summed up Saelens' day as: "It was a very constructive day for us. We tried a lot of new things and we think we have made good progress with the car. David was consistent, never made any mistakes, and gave us good feedback.

"It's been a big problem for us not being able to test much this season, so today we took full advantage of the opportunity. We definitely think we can make the car quicker, and are looking forward to Monza, for sure."

Saelens has spent the past three years competing in the F3000 series, with a best result of four third-place finishes and two pole positions. Prior to this he secured the 1998 French Formula Three World Championship.

Testing continues today (Wednesday) with Alex Yoong at the wheel