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FIA Formula 3000 Championship
Round 5/12, Monaco
Qualifying, May 24 2002
Weather: hot, sunny 

Mario Haberfeld: 9^th, 1m 28.959s

“Today was a bit frustrating because I definitely had the potential to be in the top three but I just didn’t get a clean break. The car felt very good initially but it picked up more understeer as track conditions got faster. The team changed the chassis during the break and it felt much better after that, but because of circumstances I never really had chance to prove its speed. Some laps were spoiled by traffic, others because there were yellow caution flags at various points on the track. Looking at the data I believe I could have been about half a second faster, but there’s no point worrying about it. Overtaking is pretty much impossible here once the race settles down, so I’ll try to gain some places at the start and then hope a few of the others fall by the wayside. It is not unrealistic to target a points finish tomorrow and maintain our title challenge.” 

Rob Nguyen: 11^th, 1m 29.120s

“Wow! What can I say? This is my first time in Monaco – and my first race at any street track – but I still managed to record my best qualifying position of the season so far. At first it felt a little nerve-wracking having the barriers so close, but I soon got used to it and by the end of the second session I was barely aware of them.

“My car understeered a bit too much in the first session, but the team did a great job to dial that out and things were much better in the second. Traffic was a problem, but I guess that was the same for everybody. I thought I might be further off the pace here, because of my inexperience, so I am very pleased to be less than nine-tenths of a second away from the pole position time. I hope to keep my nose clean at the start, which I know can be difficult here because the track narrows on the approach to the first corner, and I think we have an outside chance of scoring some points.” 

Sam Boyle, team manager

“This was another strong team performance today. Mario was right on the pace and was a bit unfortunate not to qualify higher up. Plus I have to say, yet again., that Rob continues to astonish us with the maturity of his performances. He didn’t get frustrated by how difficult it was to find a clear lap. He kept his mind on the job and only had one spin all day. Given that he has never been on a street track before, he did a fabulous job.”