JULY 25, 2003

Kiesa completes first test for Minardi

Nicolas Kiesa has completed his first run for European Minardi, and his first run in an F1 car for that matter. The 22 year-old Danish driver completed a total of 106 laps, a distance of 310 km, at Ferrari's Fiorano test track. The main objective of the session was to let Kiesa familiarize himself with the PS03 and its systems, while also giving him the experience needed at racing speeds to qualify for his FIA Super-licence.

Kiesa was impressed with the power of the car but also seems ready to take on the challenge. "In all honesty, I was quite surprised that I was physically able to do the full 300 km today without any problems. After the first 200 km this morning, I had a slightly sore neck, but having finished the full distance, I now feel much better than this morning and could easily go on driving. It has been a really great experience, and I can't wait for Hockenheim next weekend."

Also on track was Minardi's new test driver Gianmaria Bruni. The Italian was thrilled to get his first drive in an F1 car but was only able to do a few shakedown laps completing a distance of 30 km.

Paul Stoddart was grateful for the teams granting him permission to run his cars during the period of the summer testing ban. He also seemed very satisfied with the performance of his new recruits saying, "The team is very pleased with Nicolas's performance over the 310-km distance he covered today, and although he only carried out a few shakedown laps, Gianmaria also did an excellent job and appeared to get to grips with F1 performance very quickly.