Sister squads embarrass Japanese giants

(GMM) Japanese giants Toyota and Honda endured an embarrassing day at Albert Park on Friday as the first official action of the 2007 formula one season kicked off.

All four of the hugely-financed works cars were outpaced after the three hours of free practice running by their satellite squads; Toyota by Toyota-powered Williams, and Honda by Super Aguri, who this season are using a development of the year-old works racer.

"Our position today is a clear indication that there is a lot of work to be done to close the gap to where we want to be," said Honda's Jenson Button, whose best time was fractionally off the pace of Takuma Sato, the slower of the impressive Super Aguri duo.

Aguri's Sporting Director Graham Taylor, however, played down the pace of the newly launched SA07.

"I think we're showing ourselves to be in higher positions than we really are," he said on Friday, "because of the decisions we made to accommodate for the green track.

"We are, however, very pleased."

So, too, are Williams; whose Alex Wurz was nearly two full seconds clear of Ralf Schumacher's works Toyota.