2006 Canadian Grand Prix - Final Practice & Qualifying
Despite making substantial gains in pace between practice
and qualifying, MF1 Racing came up a bit short in qualifying
and was unable to repeat its feat of entering the second session,
as it had at the British Grand Prix.
Nevertheless, the team feels that a combination of reliability
and sensible race management will allow if to perform competitively
during tomorrow's race.
Tiago Monteiro (POR), #18
(Chassis: M16-04)
Third Timed Practice Session: 18th, 1:17.747 (+2.292), 17
laps completed
Qualifying: 19th, 1:17.121 (+1.771 from fastest lap of 1st
session), 8 laps completed
Quote: "As I said heading into this weekend, this isn't
the best kind of circuit for our car, so I can't say I'm surprised
by the result. The morning practice and qualifying sessions
went pretty smoothly for us, actually, and we we're weren't
too far from getting into Q2. We did two timed laps in qualifying,
and my second run was looking pretty good through the first
two sectors - I was six-tenths up. But then I lost most of
it through the final sector, and I think that's what cost
us our chance to break through. Still, I think we're looking
OK heading into tomorrow because the car actually feels better
on worn tyres, which gives me confidence that I'll be able
to run strongly over a race distance."
Christijan Albers (NED), #19
(Chassis: M16-02)
Third Timed Practice Session: 22nd, 1:19.531 (+4.076), 16
laps completed
Qualifying: 20th, 1:17.140 (+1.79 from fastest lap of 1st
session), 7 laps completed
Quote: "Today was not a great day for us, I have to admit.
We're really struggling to find the right set-up. Yesterday,
I wasn't able to get it together, and I did not get it together
today, either. It's been a tough weekend for us so far and
I think it's going to be a tough race tomorrow, as well. On
the positive side, once again, I have a lot of tyres for the
race, so I'll be pushing as hard as I can to make the best
of the situation."
Colin Kolles, Managing Director: "We're
quite competitive through the first two sectors, but we're
losing a lot of time in the third. It's frustrating but not
entirely unexpected, because this is a track that requires
efficient aerodynamics. We still have some work to do in this
area, but there will be improvements coming soon."
James Key, Technical Director: "Today
was a little bit disappointing. To be fair, we didn't expect
to be as competitive here as at Silverstone because of the
nature of the circuit. Both drivers did a good job to extract
the most out of the car. We learned a bit during this morning's
practice session, but the track was still improving. Come
qualifying, what we suspected with the track and the tyres
proved to be the case: Sectors One and Two were very competitive
- we're happy with them - but Sector Three has been our downfall
all weekend; we're just not quick enough in a straight line.
We need to work on that, and it's our biggest issue at the
moment. But we'll just have to make a sensible strategy decision
for tomorrow now, and make the best of the race."
Johnny Herbert, Sporting Relations Manager: "It's
disappointing that we didn't get through to the second qualifying
session, but it was still very close. Now we have to look
forward to running a strong race tomorrow, executing a sound
strategy and getting both cars home to the finish. This is
typically a high-attrition race, so reliability will play
a very important role. Thankfully, that's been one of our
strengths lately, so we have reason to be fairly optimistic."
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