source: dcanews.com
A difficult weekend ends on a positive note as Fittipaldi-Dingman rookie, Tiago Monteiro brings his car home to an 11th place finish, earning two valuable championship points in his quest for Rookie of the Year title. After struggling with over-steer problems and early trouble in the pits, the young pilot managed to stay competitive and continue to move up the field from his starting spot of 16th. Tiago was happy with the final result even though he had hoped for more coming into the weekend.
"This was probably the most difficult race of my career," he says. "Not only because of the length, but when you have a car that doesn't suit you, it makes it difficult. I didn't enjoy myself it was really tough. I did have plenty of time to try new things like different braking points, so I kept myself busy. We had problems in the pits that put us a lap down and then at the end we had gearbox problems. Overall it was a difficult weekend, but we scored 2 points, which is good. Now I'm looking forward to Brands Hatch. This weekend was not what we wanted; we had the potential to do better. I really want to thank everyone for a good job."
Team Owner's Emerson Fittipaldi and James Dingman know their team is making progress and were satisfied with the final result. Emerson explains, "With the way we started we didn't expect points, so we are happy to get 2 points. Now, we have to go faster." James agrees with his racing legend partner,
"It was a long, trying weekend for the team. I'm very proud of Tiago for persevering to the end and getting us into the points."
The team now heads to Las Vegas tomorrow for a 2-day test on Wednesday and Thursday in preparation for the Champ Car World Series' upcoming European swing.