By Jamie Makin
May 30 2004

SAUBER PETRONAS drivers Giancarlo Fisichella and Felipe Massa finished 14th and 17th respectively after today´s first practice sessions for the Monaco Grand Prix. Thursday, Free Practice 1:

Driver	Chassis	Best Time	Position
G. Fisichella	C23-04	1:18.838	11
F. Massa	C23-06	1:19.335	16
Spare Car	C23-01	-	-

Thursday, Free Practice 2:

Driver	Chassis	Best Time	Position
G. Fisichella	C23-04	1:16.748	14
F. Massa	C23-06	1:17.422	17
Spare Car	C23-01	-	-

Sauber came into the Monaco Grand Prix weekend, admitting that their Bridgestone tyres were the car's biggest weakness at the moment. Imola and Spain saw the tyres take longer than desired to come up to temperature on their opening laps. This caused a concern for the team as qualifying well on the tight twisty Monte Carlo streets is key to a good finish.

As luck would have it, they tyres they tried out today gave them the opposite result they expected. Giancarlo Fisichella shares his frustration with them, "Things could be good, but our problem today was the rear tyres graining quite badly. Ironically, in view of what our experience has been so far this year, the tyres were good on the first lap, but grained after that."

Felipe Massa was a bit more optimistic about the tyres, but admitted he lost time today due to his own mistake. "We worked hard today on gathering data to make the right tyre choice. On a long run the balance of the car was not too bad. I had some graining on the rears, but you expect that here when the track is still green, and I´m sure the track will be better on Saturday. Unfortunately on my quick lap I made a mistake at Ste Devote and locked the front wheels, so I lost some time there."

The team clearly some work to do before qualifying this weekend, and Peter Sauber comments on the days ahead. "We learned a lot in regard to setting up the cars and making our tyre choice. Now we have to analyse the data thoroughly, so that we can make the apposite decisions for Saturday and Sunday."

Monaco is unique in that practice is run on Thursday instead of Friday. The team will surely welcome the additional day this gives them to strategize on changes needed for their cars.

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