2006 French Grand Prix - Final Practice & Qualifying
Christijan Albers extended Midland F1 Racing's recent string
of encouraging performances by once again piloting his M16
into the second qualifying session for the France Grand Prix,
the first time an MF1 driver has accomplished the feat on
consecutive race weekends.
Despite suffering from painful mouth ulcers that made it
difficult for him to communicate with the team, Albers' lap
time of 1:16.962 in the first qualifying session was the team's
best of the weekend. He just missed duplicating it in the
second session, and ultimately qualified 16th.
Tiago Monteiro improved on his best practice lap time by
0.898 of a second in qualifying, but struggled to come to
grips with the balance of his car and will start the race
from 20th position.
Tiago Monteiro (POR), #18 (Chassis: M16-03)
Third Timed Practice Session: 17th, 1:18.487 (+1.482), 23
laps completed
Qualifying: 20th, 1:17.589 (+2.096 from Pole Position lap),
7 laps completed
Quote: "This has been one of the toughest weekends for
me so far. In addition to some technical issues, I've been
having serious problems setting my car up the way I like and
balancing it to my taste, which is a shame, because I really
like this track. I don't understand why we can't get around
it, but that's how it goes sometimes - that's racing. I'm
also disappointed because I think I could have gone faster
in qualifying. On my first flying lap, I was blocked by Coulthard,
which is really surprising because he's always the first one
to complain about it when it happens to him, so I wasn't expecting
that kind of driving from him. On my second lap, I made a
few mistakes because, as I said, the car is tricky to drive
and I couldn't put in a clear lap. I'm disappointed and sorry
for the team, but we need work hard in order to sort out these
issues by tomorrow."
Christijan Albers (NED), #19 (Chassis: M16-02)
Third Timed Practice Session: 12th, 1:18.059 (+1.054), 24
laps completed
Qualifying: 16th, 1:17.105 (+1.612 from Pole Position lap),
8 + 3 laps completed
Quote: "I think we had a reasonable day. Reasonable,
but not perfect - perfect would be pole position! Still, I
think we are in good shape for the race and should be quite
competitive. Bridgestone made a good tyre for us here and
I think we chose the right compound, so we should be pretty
strong. Maximum attack!"
Colin Kolles, Managing Director: "Unfortunately,
Tiago made a mistake on the second flying lap of the first
session that prevented him from making it into the second.
Christijan did a good job and finished 14th in the first session,
and he probably could have held that position in the second
session if he had been able to repeat that time. But our pace
looks promising. We are solidly mixing it up with our rivals
now, and if we have some luck and run a smart race, we can
be competitive tomorrow."
James Key, Technical Director: "We're
reasonably optimistic heading into tomorrow, because I think
the tyre we chose is going to be good for the race. We've
gone with the harder of the two compounds we had yesterday,
and I think it's definitely the right decision given the track
conditions. The qualifying times were extremely close and
with a little luck, we might have been able to get both cars
higher up into the second session - it was that close. Unfortunately
for Tiago, he didn't make it through, which is a shame, but
we'll think about race strategies to give him a shot at a
better result. We can race competitively tomorrow, and that's
what we need to make sure we do."
Johnny Herbert, Sporting Relations Manager:
"It was a good effort by everyone overall. For Tiago,
it's a shame that he lost some time on his second split, because
if he'd got that one together, he'd have probably got through
to the second round. Christijan did a very good job to crack
the second session, especially considering the problems he's
had with his mouth ulcers. Given our tyre choice and pace
all weekend, both drivers should have a strong race."
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