More back pain for Monteiro

MF1's Tiago Monteiro qualified in 20th position for the second Grand Prix of the season in Malaysia. After trouble yesterday as the 2005 rookie of the year is now suffering from a pinched nerve in his back.

Tiago Monteiro.

Photo by xpb.cc.

During the hour long practice session on Saturday morning Monteiro covered 17 laps with a best lap of 1.37.900: "Physically, the session went better than I expected as I was concerned about the pain from my back."

"It's hot and humid out there on the track but at least the heat doesn't trouble me because I've been doing a lot of training to make sure I can cope easily with these conditions."

"I had a problem in the session when Montoya and Klien got into trouble and Klien got in my way during a flying lap. That meant my lap time was not as good as I'd hoped."

In qualifying this afternoon Monteiro finished the session with a time of 1.37.819 after his back problem returned. Monteiro will leave in 16th position tomorrow.

"It's my second time racing at this track. We couldn't make it into the second knockout session and just as I thought I wouldn't feel any more pain in my back, it struck me again and I felt I could hardly drive."

"For sure there are weekends where the new qualifying format will be beneficial to us but today it was not so bad for us. Despite my pinched nerve I will be leaving from row 8 in 16th position from the starting grid and I certainly hope to keep my advantage over the cars pushing behind me at the start."

"It is a decent start position. There will be at least five cars behind us on the starting grid because of engine changes. I have until tomorrow to get fit again. My masseur is already working on the case. I hope we'll have a good race tomorrow and that like this morning the pain will be gone."

-dca-