2007 Monaco Grand Prix Qualifying Report
Adrian Sutil (car 20, F8-VII/03):
FP3: 1st 1:36.612 (12 laps)
Q1: 19th 1:18.418 (8 laps)
Christijan Albers (car 21, F8-VII/01):
FP3: 19th 1:38.935 (14 laps)
Q1: 22nd No time
The mixed weather conditions that prevailed over Monte Carlo
today produced some surprising results in the final free practice
and Qualifying sessions for tomorrow's Monaco Grand Prix.
After the heavy rain that fell midway through the one hour
practice session dried Adrian Sutil recorded a stunning lap
in the dying seconds and for the first time in its short motorsport
history, a Spyker headed a Formula 1 timesheet. Running on
extreme wet tyres, Adrian, the F3 lap record holder in Monaco,
demonstrated remarkable confidence to set the fastest lap,
0.127secs quicker than the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen.
However as the track dried out for Qualifying, the result
was unfortunately not to be repeated. Adrian set the 19th
fastest time, but in a mark of the team's ongoing progress,
was just 0.2 secs away from 17th and 0.6 secs from entering
the second Qualifying session.
Christijan Albers was unfortunately unable to take advantage
of the changeable conditions after a spin in the first session
and a hydraulic problem in Qualifying limited his running.
The Dutchman will start tomorrow's 78 lap Grand Prix from
22nd after he did not record a timed lap in the first Qualifying
segment.
Adrian Sutil (car 20)
'It was very surprising to see my name at the top of the times
after practice, but I was obviously very pleased! I had the
perfect run. In Qualifying later my first set of tyres were
OK, but the track was not quite in so I took it a little bit
easy as I hadn't used the soft tyres and didn't know what
to expect. The second lap was very good and on the third I
was really on the edge. The tyres performed very well and
I was very close to P17. I did a good first sector, but then
the tyres dropped down and I couldn't do the same again. It
was a good day though and I hope in the race I can push back
to the front.'
Christijan Albers (car 21)
'It was a bad day for me and it's a shame for the team that
we couldn't do more. This morning I had some issues and now
in the Qualifying with the hydraulic problem. It's sad I couldn't
take advantage of the conditions but I am sure we'll get on
top of them for tomorrow and have a good race.'
Mike Gascoyne, chief technical officer
'An interesting day for us. Obviously in the wet session this
morning we were very pleased to see Adrian at the top of the
timesheets and we were hoping for rain this afternoon but
it didn't materialise. It's now a case of mixed emotions for
Qualifying; we had a hydraulic problem on Christijan's car
which meant he wasn't able to do a timed lap. Adrian had a
reasonable session though and was able to qualify ahead of
a couple of cars, which shows the progress we have been making.
We have to wait to see what conditions are like for the race
tomorrow, but given Adrian's performance in the wet, we would
be quite happy for a wet race. A solid day overall and we
hope for the same tomorrow.'
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