Monaco GP: Jordan Saturday qualifying notes

Following productive Free Practice sessions on Thursday, the second day of preparations went on for the Jordan Grand Prix this morning. Tiago Monteiro had a small touch with the barrier, which made him lose part of the final session. The team personnel, however, carried on their programme for qualifying and Sunday's Race.

In the afternoon first qualifying session, Tiago Monteiro set the 16th fastest time on the very demanding and notoriously unforgiving street circuit while Narain Karthikeyan qualified in 17th position but will start from the back of the grid tomorrow due to an engine change. Both drivers found it hard to achieve the right balance for the car but are looking forward to their first Monaco Grand Prix in a Formula One car.

Narain Karthikeyan:

"I had problem warming up the tyres this afternoon and I also struggled because I missed quite a lot of running on Thursday after I made a small mistake and touched the barrier. This is my first time on this demanding and challenging circuit so I find it difficult to familiarise myself. However, I will push very hard tomorrow and try not to make any mistake during the race."

Tiago Monteiro:

"We struggled a bit with the balance and the set-up here and it is quite tricky in street circuits if your car is not well balanced. However, we will now analyse the gathered data and I think we will go in the right direction for the race tomorrow. The race is very long in Monaco so everything is possible."

Trevor Carlin, Sporting director:

"It was a tough qualifying today for both our drivers on this difficult Monaco circuit. We have not performed quite as well as we had expected but this race is all about getting to the end and with our good reliability record this year I hope we can get a decent finish out of it. "

Narain Karthikeyan
Chassis: EJ15/02
1:19.474, 17th

Tiago Monteiro
Chassis: EJ15/03
1:19.408, 16th

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