FIA INTERNATIONAL FORMULA 3000
ROUND 12 QUALIFYING AT MONZA, ITALY

Tiago Monteiro had a good start to the first session while the F1 rubber was down on the track and he got up to tenth during the session but dropped to fourteenth by the end of session one. Unfortunately he was unable to go quick on new tyres in the second session and dropped further down to sixteenth by the end of the forty-minute session.

Tiago Monteiro "It was really disappointing to finish the last qualifying like this as it doesn't reflect what we could have done. I did my best lap on old tyres because I got a tow. With so many straight lines at this circuit you can't compete without a good tow. With old tyres I did my best time behind Sperafico and the car was pretty well balanced but on my last set of new tyres I never had enough grip. It was so frustrating because I was pushing hard and nothing was coming. We don't have any big problems with the car we just needed a good tow and the same thing happened to Sebastien as well. It's not over but starting from sixteenth it will be difficult to score points, but at this track it is possible to overtake on, so I will try to finish on a good note."

Team Manager - David Sears - "Tiago Monteiro was looking good to qualifying in the top ten but he did not go any quicker on his last set of tyres and dropped back to sixteenth which is a disappointing qualifying position compared to his recent results. However with Monza being such a slip stream circuit anything can happen and it probably will."

Qualification: 1st Bjorn Widrheim, 1m37,857s; 2nd Giorgio Pantano, 1m38,032s; 3rd Tomas Enge, 1m38,098s; 4th Rob Nguyen, 1m38,322s; 5th Antonio Pizzonia, 1m38,339s; 6th Mario Haberfeld, 1m38,434s; 7th Sebastien Bourdais, 1m38,438s; 8th Ricardo Sperafico, 1m38,473s; (...) 15th Patrick Friesacher, 1m39,111s; 16th Tiago Monteiro, 1m39,114s.

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