National record for Monteiro

Portuguese qualifying record for Monteiro!

Tiago Monteiro took the world of Formula One by storm on Saturday afternoon by securing a convincing 13th place at the end of the qualifying session for the Brazilian Grand Prix, on a circuits that is often described as the toughest of the championship, due to the many challenges it presents: technically with a bumpy surface, making it hard to find the perfect compromise in terms of set up, and a real physical test on the driver.

Tiago Monteiro.

Photo by Jordan Grand Prix.

The Portuguese driver completed a lap without fault and recorded the dream of any driver - a perfect lap - by drawing the most from his EJ15 in every sector of the circuit. It was mainly in the 2nd sector that Tiago built his lead, the technical section of the Brazilian circuit, where he gained almost a second on his teammate, Narain Karthikeyan.

However, Tiago will start Sunday's race from twelfth on the grid after Toyota driver, Jarno Trulli, was forced to undergo an engine change before qualifying and therefore losing 10 places on the grid.

The Portuguese driver has therefore beaten his national record for the starting position of an F1 GP, previously held by Pedro Lamy and M?rio Ara?jo Cabral who both qualified in 14th position. More importantly, and very encouraging, is the fact that throughout the weekend, Tiago's times have been much closer to those of the fastest drivers.

The satisfaction of the Jordan driver, who, for the fourth consecutive time, beat his teammate in qualifying, was obvious: "It was one of my best laps of the weekend, and it all went very well, I could attack and the lap was clear and without problems."

"We are satisfied because the more we run with this new car, the B evolution, the more we are headed in the right direction, and more so, we have a margin where we can progress further. The tyres are getting to temperature quickly and we could lap quickly in complete confidence," explained Tiago, after setting his brilliant 13th time on the circuit of Interlagos.

"I am also very close to the drivers who are in front of me, there are 6 drivers within four tenths and Fernando Alonso, who took pole is only 1.3 seconds ahead of me. All this gives me an enormous motivation with a small team like Jordan, to continue doing our best and if possible try to go out and score more points tomorrow."

Tiago counts on the presence of many fans here in Brazil and is drawing the attention of many members of the media and guests of the sponsors. To evaluate this 13th time, which is transformed into 12th place on the starting grid, it is important to remember that since the first day, the new Jordan EJ15B Toyota made good progress, and Tiago succeeded in finding a good setup and drawing the best from it.

11th on the grid was secured by Jacques Villeneuve, who is just 15 thousandths of second in front of Tiago. Then, in 10th place, is Ralf Schumacher's Toyota, 102 thousandths ahead while 9th place of the grid is occupied by the Ferrari of Rubens Barrichello, 204 thousandths faster than the Jordan driver.

Tiago was faster than both Williams of Webber and Antonio Pizzonia, and also David Coulthard's Red Bull.

-dca-