Monteiro hopes for good start

The first qualifying session for the Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix took place today on the Sakhir circuit, in the desert near the capital of Manama. The drivers experienced the perilous exercise of the low-fuel flying lap.

Tiago Monteiro.

Photo by Bridgestone Corporation.

Tiago Monteiro took the 18th best time of the day, 1.33.424, in his Jordan Toyota EJ15, and positioned himself just 3.5 seconds behind Fernando Alonso, the day's Pole winner.

The Portuguese driver is sharing the ninth row of the provisional grid with his teammate, Narain Karthikeyan, the two Jordan drivers being positioned just behind the 1997 world champion, Jacques Villeneuve, and Ferrari driver Rubens Barrichello.

"We changed a lot of settings on the car today, but I am still not satisfied with the strange reactions coming from the traction control," Monteiro commented at the end of his qualifying lap. "I'm working on the telemetry with a new engineer and I think that we were over careful. But I also think that the heat put us at a bit of a disadvantage."

"I took off for my flying lap without having complete confidence in my car and I forced my driving a bit in places, and that made me lose four tenths of a second in the first two curves, because my tyres weren't functioning perfectly."

"I could have done better but we are satisfied with the result because the car could not give its all in 41°C heat. The gap between us and the Provisional Pole Position is substantially smaller than it was for the last Grand Prix."

"I can't correct what I am not satisfied with on the car, because now it's in the parc ferm?, which limits my maneuvering room before the second qualifying session," Tiago explains. "The two drivers right in front of us are theoretically not within our reach."

After two superb starts in Australia and Malaysia, where he got over on his teammate, along with several other competitors, Monteiro hopes to give a repeat performance when the red lights go out tomorrow, at the start of the third leg of the world championship.

"I am going to try to get another good start, but I will have to be careful during the first braking so I don't go over a sandy patch of track, or get caught in a situation which could compromise our objectives."

-dca-