Monteiro let down by engine failure

An engine failure in the Toyota powered Jordan EJ15 in the opening practice sessions at the Silverstone circuit on Friday will see Tiago Monteiro start Sunday's eleventh round of the 2005 Formula One championship from the back of the grid as the team were forced to change the engine before today's qualifying session.

Tiago Monteiro.

Photo by xpb.cc.

As well as the ten place demotion, the engine failure cost Tiago track time, something that is extremely valuable to the Portuguese driver as he attempts to learn the English circuit. However, he managed to look on the bright side of things and gave his opinion on the teams progress after the first day of preparations.

"The track was rather dirty and offered little grip in the beginning. Even if the team already had the chance of running on this track earlier in the year, the main concern now is that we were very unstable and therefore need to find the best set up for the race," Tiago explained. "I will therefore run with a lot of fuel on board for the final free practice sessions."

Despite the change of engine in his EJ15 and the waste of valuable track time, Tiago could seriously progress in the second free practice session on Friday, and secured a place in front of his team-mate Narain Karthikeyan.

"With a time of 1:23.629, I am 3.3 seconds of the best race driver, Juan Pablo Montoya, which is not ridiculous given the problems which we had to face," analyzed Tiago. "The second session was very productive and allowed us to gather invaluable data in regard to a good set-up. We are not there yet, but I am satisfied with our work and the efforts provided by all the members of the team."

-dca-