Recent wet and overcast conditions at the Interlagos circuit cleared today for a warm and sunny Saturday track programme. Spyker MF1 Team failed to match the brighter outlook as they experienced a problematic qualifying session.
Having enjoyed some promising performance so far this weekend Tiago Monteiro was expecting a strong grid position. Unfortunately he spun early in qualifying resulting in his car becoming stranded for the remainder of the session. This incident means he will start the Brazilian Grand Prix from 22nd on the grid.
Tiago Monteiro said: "The day didn't start very well with a two thousand dollar fine for crossing the pit lane exit. When I got out of the car the President of Spyker, Victor Muller told me that if I made it to the second session that he would cover it! Unfortunately I made one of the most stupid mistakes of my F1 career, obviously I was pushing hard as it was qualifying but I hit the curb on high speed corner 7 and spun the car causing it to stall. Its really frustrating as Christijan was only 3 tenths off P16 so I think we could have made it."
Christijan Albers had more success and was again able to out-qualify one of the Red Bull cars. Although struggling for grip he ended the first session in 18th position. With some recent encouraging race performance the Dutch driver, who will be driving for Spyker F1 in 2007, is looking forward to ending the season on a high.
Christijan Albers commented: "I think we did the maximum we could do today, but it could have been better. We were good on the first run, but on the second, quicker lap we could have been even stronger but we lost a lot of grip in the final three corners. It was a bit of shame because the combination of the tyres and other issues meant we could have been much higher up the grid. I think we are still competitive against our rivals so we will see what happens in the race."
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Formula 1
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Tiago Monteiro
Christijan Albers
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