FIA INTERNATIONAL FORMULA 3000 
29^th March 2002 

Super Nova Racing had the best possible start to the 2002 season with Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais taking pole position for tomorrow’s 35-lap race.  Sebastien was on the pace right from the start of the first session, getting up to second quickest after only seven laps.  He finished the session second behind Arden’s Tomas Enge.  After the thirty minute break Sebastien gained pole five minutes into the session and although swapping positions with Brazilian Mario Haberfeld at the beginning of the session he held on to the top spot for over thirty minutes and is extremely happy with the performance.  Tiago Monteiro had another circuit to learn for the first qualifying session of the year and improved his time on each lap to finish sixteenth at the end of session one.  His times improved further during the second session to put him fifteenth quickest.  He is now looking forward to experiencing his first Formula 3000 race which begins at 3pm tomorrow.” 

Sebastien Bourdais 1:26.056 (P1) 

“I feel very good.  It is great to be on pole position as I haven’t been there for a long time and now I am it is a great satisfaction.  But tomorrow is another day and we have only done half a job so far, so we will have to keep fighting in the race.” 

Tiago Monteiro 1:27.617 (P15) 

“I’m not disappointed but I’m not completely happy either.  I had to learn the track and I am still learning about the car as well so I wasn’t one hundred per cent confident, but being 1.5 seconds away in 30 laps is not bad at all.  The track was very interesting and the car was really quite balanced on new tyres, I was pushing harder and harder on each lap but this is when the tyres were getting more worn so the times were stable even though I was pushing harder, but I think it’s just a matter of confidence.  The team did a good job and Sebastien had a great day and I am very happy for him.  It is a good start for the whole team.  It has been a really important learning day for me and now I am looking forward to the race.  I must keep my head cool as a I know lots of drivers will make mistakes so my goal for tomorrow is just to finish the race and try to finish in the top ten.” 

Team Manager – David Sears 

“After some of the controversy over the past few weeks, the whole Super Nova team were delighted with Sebastien Bourdais giving the team pole position for the first race of the season.  The Super Nova engineers used both qualifying sessions to further develop their new cars and found some significant improvements. 

Tiago Monteiro continues to improve every time he gets in the car but here in Brazil we had to learn the track and some more about the car, so it was always going to be difficult.  However Tiago ended up in 15^th place just behind an ex Super Nova driver David Saelens.  So the objective for Tiago tomorrow is to complete a race distance and continue to improve.” 

Qualifying times follow. 

For further information please contact Sarah Newsum.  Tel: +44 1953 881188