source: dcanews.com
Fittipaldi-Dingman rookie, Tiago Monteiro kicks off
the Long Beach Grand Prix weekend with mixed results, finishing 4th in the
weekend's first practice session, and qualifying 12 on the provisional
pole. Tiago scored his best lap time of
the morning session at 1:12.232 on lap 24 of his 27 laps with a lap speed of
98.084.
The team was
very pleased with the morning results and were hoping for similar placement on
the provisional grid. That
unfortunately was not to happen. Due to
some unfortunate timing late in the session, Tiago was only able to qualify
12th. "I am pretty happy
with the day overall, but am disappointed with the final results. We did not deserve that; we should have been
in the top 10. We had lots of traffic and
I was waiting for a clear lap but didn't get it. We only had 15 laps and we ran out before the traffic cleared and
my team called me in. I think we still
have the potential to qualify in the top 10.
I am looking forward to tomorrow and better results."
Team owner Emerson Fittipaldi also had mixed feelings on
the day. "I am very happy with
Tiago's first day on here since he has never been on this track before. We had two quick laps before getting stuck
in traffic. I think we could have been
at least 9th if we had gotten a clear track.
We are looking forward to Saturday.
It should be a good day for us."
Tomorrow's practice session
is at 10:00 a.m. with the final round of qualifying set for 1:45 p.m. Tiago and the team are confident that they
can finish the day tomorrow in the manner they started the day today... near
the top.