Disappointment for Monteiro

Tiago 'taken out' in first lap of Turkey race

Tiago Monteiro suffered the disappointing experience of not making it beyond the first lap of today's 58 lap long Turkey Grand Prix.

Start crash: Tiago Monteiro.

Photo by xpb.cc.

Monteiro (Midland F1) commented: "This was a huge disappointment for me not to be able to cover one lap in my Midland M16. I had made a good start ahead of my team-mate Christijan Albers, and I was feeling really good."

"Then suddenly, it got a bit messy at the start. I felt a car running into me from the right hand side as I was in the inside line in the first corner of the first lap. It happened so quickly. I had no time to react. He hit my wheel and my radiator and that was it."

"I did not know who it was, but discovered later that it was Takuma Sato (Super Aguri F1) cutting into my space after being certainly caught in the first race incident along with Scott Speed (Scuderia Toro Rosso as well as Kimi Raikkonen (West McLaren Mercedes) and Giancarlo Fisichella (Mild Seven Renault F1 Team) spinning ahead of us."

"Nevertheless my car was severely damaged with the front suspension broken and this ended my race on the spot. What a shame after a good week-end. We were certain that our team strategy would pay off and that considering the extreme hot temperature on the track, the choice for our tires would work perfectly well."

"Imagine how disappointed and frustrated I am. I did not deserve such a short race. I am glad that we are heading directly to Monza for a three-day test in preparation of the Italian Grand Prix."

-credit: dca