Monaco GP: MF1 Saturday qualifying notes

MF1 Racing came within 0.275 of a second from reaching the second qualifying session today, with Christijan Albers posting the team's fastest lap of the weekend in a valiant attempt to break out of the third bracket and move up the grid.

Despite the disappointment of barely missing that target, the team is pleased with the progress made over the weekend and remains optimistic for a good result in tomorrow's race.

Tiago Monteiro:

"What can I say? The car has been great all weekend but unfortunately, I was blocked in three corners while attempting my fastest lap and I lost about half a second, so I'm pretty upset about that. The first run was good, considering the track conditions. My second lap was going to be even better, but as I said, I was blocked. It's frustrating for the whole team, because everyone worked so hard to get our pace up to where it is."

"We've shown so much potential and so much genuine improvement this weekend, there's no reason why we should be 17th and 18th. We really should have been in the second session. In any event, I have to thank my team for giving me such a well-balanced car all weekend, which is very positive and will be even more important come tomorrow."

Christijan Albers:

"First of all, I have to thank all the guys in crew for keeping their faith in me and working hard to sort out all the problems we've had the last two races. Now we're focusing on moving forward - we're not looking backwards anymore. I'd also like to thank Toyota for the power they've given us here. I think tomorrow will be a difficult race, but today we had a lot of fun because we're quite competitive here."

"It was a shame that I struggled in the first two practices on Thursday, but we kept our heads cool, we learned about our tyres, and we made the right choice today. That's why our performance continues to get stronger, so thanks again to everybody."

Colin Kolles, Managing Director:

"We can see that the gap to the front is continuing to close. I think we've had a good weekend so far. We have a good race set-up for both cars and the drivers are doing a fine job for us. Even though it would have been nice to get into the second qualifying session, we are still positive and confident for the race ahead."

James Key, Technical Director:

"Obviously, we're a little disappointed, because the form was there this morning. We wanted to get into Q2, and there was a good chance of doing that today. Both drivers did very well."

"Christijan gave the best performance he's given so far this weekend and was only a few tenths away from getting into the next session. Tiago was very close, as well. He lost half a second to traffic on his quickest lap. But that's the nature of the circuit and the way things work here."

"I'm sure other people could also say the same thing, but we could have got into Q2. The pace was there, but luck was against us a little bit. We've got to come away from this pleased with our performance level. The gap was the closest it's ever been to the guys ahead, and its further evidence that our continuing developments and improvements are being realised at the track."

Tiago Monteiro
Chassis: M16-03
Qualifying: 18th, 1:15.993 (+2.095 from Pole Position), 8 laps

Christijan Albers
Chassis: M16-02
Qualifying: 17th, 1:15.598 (+1.7 from Pole Position), 8 laps

-mf1-