Malaysia: Davidson to replace Sato this weekend

Ant's Big Chance
By Jamie Makin
March 19 2005

Anthony Davidson's name has been in many headlines this week as a rumoured replacement for Sauber's Jacques Villeneuve but nobody foresaw that he might be replacing Takuma Sato instead.

Sato has unfortnately fallen ill with a high fever and the team opted at the start of Saturday practice to sit him out. Davidson took to the track in his place and will qualify and race Sato's car this weekend.

Davidson created a lot of buzz last year by consistently being at the top of the time sheets in Friday practice. Many people have wondered how these blazing performances would translate to a race. While we will now have a chance to find out, it is important to note that Davidson has competed in two grand prix before. In 2002 he replaced Alex Yoong at the Minardi team for the Hungarian and Belgian grand prix. While he did not finish either race, he did impress by matching the pace of the team's other driver, Mark Webber. Tomorrow's race will now give Ant another chance to show his potential as a grand prix racer.