MF1 RACING
2006 Australian GP - Qualifying
Colin Kolles, Managing Director: "It's obvious from
race to race that the gap between us and the cars in front
of us is getting smaller, so that's a positive sign. We're
moving in the right direction and we will continue working
hard to improve. Both our drivers are putting in strong performances
and the team is also doing a good job. With this kind of effort,
I'm sure we will see some better results in the near future."
Adrian Burgess, Sporting Director: "Not
a bad effort, but we're not totally happy with it. We were
a little bit late getting Tiago's car out due to a few issues
we had. The red flag helped us, so he got his laps in, but
he was held up by a slower car on both his runs, which obviously
didn't help Tiago. Christijan had a small problem with the
car, which affected his lap times somewhat. It will be interesting
to see what tomorrow brings. I think we're on top of the reliability
issues from the last event, so we can focus our energy on
finding more pace."
Tiago Monteiro (POR), #18
Chassis: M16-03
Best Time, Morning Practice: 1:39.515 (16th)
Qualifying Time / Classification: 1:30.709 (20th)
Quote: "It was very annoying, because we were running
smoothly all weekend, making steady progress, and then you
get to qualifying, with only 15 minutes to make the cut, and
we got impeded by traffic. On both tentative laps, I couldn't
get up to speed because of slower cars ahead of me. The track
had a lot less traction than yesterday because of the rain,
but I'm just really annoyed that I couldn't get a run at a
clear lap. It's really frustrating, because this heat wasn't
indicative of our true performance. We could have gone a lot
faster."
Christijan Albers (NED), #19
Chassis: M16-02
Best Time, Morning Practice: no time (22nd)
Qualifying Time / Classification: 1:30.226 (18th)
Quote: "Obviously, I'm not pleased with where we ended
up. I ran into some traffic on my fast lap. Actually, I was
surprised, because the car that held me up was a Honda and
I couldn't believe how quickly I came up behind him. But overall,
it wasn't too bad out there. I was encouraged by the performance
of the tyres - they were a lot better than the ones I had
yesterday. The guys worked hard to solve our problems and
the car as a whole was working much better. It's a shame that
I spun this morning, because it would have been nice to collect
some more information in wet conditions, but these kinds of
things happen. This is Formula 1, after all, and there are
a lot of electronic aids and other mechanical things that
operate outside the driver's control. But, as I said, the
car is improving all the time and I'm looking forward to a
good race tomorrow."
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