Difficult day for Monteiro

Tiago Monteiro fought hard to make it to the finish of today's Australian Grand Prix but his efforts were undermined when his Midland F1 car developed a hydraulic problem which affected his gearbox and prevented him from finishing a competitive race.

Tiago Monteiro.

Photo by xpb.cc.

"At the start of the race, I was stuck behind Yuji Ide so with the team we decided to change the strategy," Monteiro revealed. "When the first safety car came out, I completed my first pit stop on lap 8. I also refuelled during the third safety car period which came after Michael Schumacher crashed."

We did very well to exploit the safety car periods to make our pit stops. The car was well balanced and performing well and I was having a great race climbing up to twelfth position by the time Liuzzi crashed and caused the fourth safety car period."

"My lap times were good compared to our rivals and better than my team mate's," Monteiro added. "We could have finished in the top ten today but unfortunately it was not to be."

"The hydraulic problem is frustrating, but I understand that that's how racing goes sometimes. I'm just happy that at least the car was performing well in the race, and that's what motivates me for the next one."

"During our next test in Silverstone in two weeks we need to understand why the failure happened and how to prevent it from happening again. I am off tonight to Singapore before flying back to Portugal."

-dca-