MF1 RACING
2006 British Grand Prix - Qualifying
MF1 Racing took another historic step forward today as Tiago
Monteiro drove his M16 into the second qualifying session
for the first time in the team's maiden season. Monteiro recorded
the 13th fastest time in the first session, but slipped to
16th position in the subsequent heat.
His teammate, Christijan Albers, was hampered by a lack of
running in the morning practice session as the result of a
mechanical problem. Although bad luck prevented him from demonstrating
the full potential of his car in qualifying, the team remains
hopeful of a strong race from both drivers tomorrow.
Tiago Monteiro (POR), #18
(Chassis: M16-03)
Third Timed Practice Session: 13th, 1:22.812 (+1.893 gap to
front), 19 laps completed
Qualifying: 16th, 1:22.207 (+1.936 from fastest lap of 2nd
session), 3 laps completed
Quote: "It's been a great weekend so
far. I'm so happy for the team. They were so excited when
I got out of the car. In fact, I think they were actually
more excited that I was to get into the second session, so
I'm really happy for them. They all deserve it; we've been
working so hard. As you can see, for the past few races -
since about Nurburgring, I would say - we've been progressing,
and that's very encouraging, so I'm glad I was able to show
our true pace today. We should have done it in Monaco but
it didn't work out, so I'm glad for the whole team that we
could accomplish this today. It feels amazing, and the car
has been handling very well since yesterday. Now we've got
a long race ahead tomorrow and another opportunity to show
how much we've improved."
Christijan Albers (NED), #19
(Chassis: M16-02)
Third Timed Practice Session: N/C, no time, 3 laps completed
Qualifying: 18th, 1:23.210 (+2.192 from fastest lap of 1st
session), 7 laps completed
Quote: "It's a shame, because I had
a lot of bad luck today. We had a mechanical problem in morning
practice and a misjudgement on my last timed run - we lost
too much time in the garage, and I was pretty sure we would
have been able to set a quick time. The good news is that
the car feels nicely balanced and I have lots of spare tyres
available for tomorrow!"
Colin Kolles, Managing Director: "It's clear that we
are continuing to make progress. I know it seems like I'm
always saying the same thing, but it's true. I think it was
possible for us to get both cars into the top sixteen but
unfortunately, we had to call Christijan in before he could
complete his timed lap because we missed getting him out by
about 5 seconds. This is disappointing, but we have to look
forward and keep improving the car."
James Key, Technical Director: "It's
very positive for us today to come out and go into the second
qualifying session. It's the first time we've achieved that,
and that's a very good step for the team and for the car.
A little bit surprisingly, we're carrying some of the form
we saw in Monaco over to Silverstone, which I must admit,
I didn't fully expect. It's a terrible shame that Christijan
lost all of his track time this morning. We tried to run him
three times in qualifying today, which was theoretically possible,
and in fact, if we had to do it again tomorrow, we'd probably
do things a little bit better. But we just missed the cut
at the end and I think had he got that third run in, he also
could have been in Q2 because he was extremely close to Tiago's
times during his first two runs. We're delighted with Tiago's
drive - both he and his crew did a fantastic job - and we
know Christijan will be motivated to push hard tomorrow, as
always."
Johnny Herbert, Sporting Relations Manager:
"I think we've had this coming for the last couple of
races and it's fantastic that we've finally been able to achieve
getting through to the second session of qualifying. It's
a shame for Christijan because we should have got both cars
through. I think we sort of let him down, but both drivers
did a fantastic job today. Full credit, as well, to the guys
who are here, but also to the staff at the factory and at
the wind tunnel. It's their hard work that keeps pushing us
forward and I applaud them."
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