In Hungary, Tiago Monteiro
scored the Midland F1 team’s best finish of the season after an excellent
weekend in which he continued to develop the car’s performance, making it into
the second knockout session in qualifying for the third consecutive time.
Looking ahead to his 33rd
career Grand Prix Monteiro says: "After the
experience in Hungary we’ve
had a summer break in which I’ve been spending some time with my family and
doing media and public relations activities for the team - including a really
fun day demonstrating our car on the streets of Rotterdam in Holland. It might
have rained but it was still a lot of fun and I could hardly believe how many
spectators turned out to watch us race. Talking about racing, I really can’t
wait to get back behind the wheel this weekend.
I had a good experience at
Istanbul when we raced here for the first time last year. I finished fifteenth
despite a gearbox problem and some really annoying toothache.
I'm hopeful
we can continue our improved performance of late and build on our result in
Hungary. The car should be competitive again. Turkey was new to everyone last
year, but I learned it quickly. I liked what I got to see of the country last
yar, but I had to focus exclusively on the racing side.
This year, I
decided to travel to Istanbul a few days ahead of
the Grand
Prix to discover a bit more of the city. The weather is superb, however, I don’t
expect it to be too hot again this weekend, but we’ll definitely have to watch
the tyres and make the right choice for the conditions. I’m looking forward to
get the best out of the car and hopefully another strong finish on the very
interesting, fast and very technical track. Let's hope that the traffic jams
getting into the circuit won’t spoil the week-end.
Please don’t
forget: I’ve prepared a very special T-shirt for my friends
from Turkey,
and I hope that you will make a point to come and get it on Thursday afternoon
at 4pm sharp at the team's hospitality area at the track.
tiago monteiro