It was a tough qualifying session for Tiago Monteiro (Midland
F1) who will start from 19th position in the 14th race of the season, the
Turkey Grand Prix. After the qualifying session Tiago said: "We need to look
beyond result. We found that the increased track and ambient temperatures had
caused the circuit to drop off a little bit, resulting in a little bit more
oversteer in the early runs. I don't think the starting grid will necessarily
reflect the true pace of our cars. I am confident that my strategy will pay off
over the course of what will be a long and tough race.
The team decided that we should have two very different
strategies on Saturday in preparation for tomorrow's Turkish Grand Prix. As I
didn't need to have the engine changed, as my team-mate did, I chose to
run harder tyres and to prioritize equipment and reliability. My tyre choice
will work better tomorrow and Albers had softer tires today which allowed him to
be faster in order to offset the upcoming 10-grid place penalty for his
engine change. Our tyres were different but my team made me leave a bit late
during the session to make them really work correctly and adapt to the track
temperature.
At the end of the day it is in the race that you score your points, and that's
what we're aiming for. With that in mind, we're reasonably satisfied with our
preparation of the race for tomorrow.
tiago monteiro