By MF1 media
May 25 2006

Midland F1 Racing demonstrated faultless reliability and controlled aggression from its drivers to finish the Thursday free practice sessions in Monaco with an encouraging 12th fastest lap time.

Despite two red flags brought on by opponents' encounters with the unforgiving armco barriers during the second session, Giorgio Mondini and Tiago Monteiro were able to post competitive times within 1.5 seconds of the pace on this tight street circuit.

Tiago Monteiro (POR)
Chassis: M16-03, Car #18
First Timed Session Classification: 21st, 1:19.730 (+3.018), 17 laps completed
Second Timed Session Classification: 12th, 1:17.439 (+1.532), 30 laps completed
Quote: "We've been working on the same set of tyres all morning and adapting the car to those old ones, and then later, when we switched to a new set, we weren't sure what would happen. But I got a clear run at the track and the grip improved tremendously, which was a big surprise. In some places, there's still a lot more to come and I think we can squeeze some more speed out of those tyres. I'm really pleased with the job I've done with my engineers, because every time we had a problem we managed to sort it out and make good improvements. Now we have a day and a half to work on it. There's still more to gain, and the other teams are going to be working hard, as well, so we can't afford to sleep. We've got to work hard until Saturday morning to improve even more and get the race set-up right."

Christijan Albers (NED)
Chassis: M16-04, Car #19
First Timed Session Classification: 24th, 1:20.552 (+3.840), 17 laps completed
Second Timed Session Classification: 24th, 1:18.430 (+2.523), 24 laps completed
Quote: "We had a rough morning today, no question. We played around with the car set-up but just couldn't find the right combination. But this afternoon, when we switched to the new tyre, it was a completely different car, so obviously that was the way to go. Looking at Tiago's times this morning after he switched, we saw that he was much better everywhere, so we suspected that it was the tyres but we still wanted to carry out a full evaluation. It's a shame that I had a brake pedal issue that we couldn't solve during the session, but I'm sure my mechanics will be able to fix it overnight. The important thing is that we found a lot more grip in the afternoon and I'm sure we'll be ready to hit back on Saturday."

Giorgio Mondini (SUI)
Chassis: M16-02, T-Car
First Timed Session Classification: 20th, 1:19.669 (+2.957), 29 laps completed
Second Timed Session Classification: 14th, 1:17.497 (+1.590), 30 laps completed
Quote: "The car was really, really good today. With a few more runs, I think I might even have been able to get the time down even more. The fact that both Tiago and I are on the pace means this performance was not an illusion; the car really has potential. If we keep working hard, I think we can drop our times even lower and be within 2 seconds of the pole time, which will hopefully put us into the second qualifying session for the first time this year. I don't want to speak too early, but this might end up being our best weekend of the year."

Colin Kolles, Managing Director: "We'll see what happens in qualifying, but we did some reasonable times today. The gap to the front was only 1.5 seconds, the smallest we've managed this season, so clearly we're improving. Christijan was having some issues with his brake pedal today, so he wasn't able to get the maximum out of the car. But I think all three drivers did a very good job today."

James Key, Technical Director: "As always, we never know what to expect in Monaco. The track condition was fairly poor this morning but consistently improved throughout the day. Giorgio did a very good job of comparing the tyres and general set-up work, and I think he's pretty much confirmed which tyre we'd like to go with on Saturday, but we'll have to see. Like I said, it's Monaco - who knows what could happen? Christijan struggled with tyres and a brake feel issue all day, although the two other cars were good, so we'll investigate it and replace parts before Saturday. Tiago did a very solid job, and had a good run at the end of the session. If we can just dial a bit more understeer out of the cars, we should be in good shape for qualifying on Saturday."

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