08/10/2006
NEWS STORY
The 2006 Japanese Grand Prix brought to an end what had been a promising weekend for the Spyker MF1 Team. After a great qualifying session and early speed in the race Christijan Albers succumbed to an unfortunate mechanical failure on lap 20.
Tiago Monteiro and his engineers selected a strong race strategy by running long in the first stint but tyre and balance issues meant that he was not able to continue showing the competitive potential of the car until the end. Tiago brought the car home in 16th to seal the team's weekend at Suzuka.
The team now looks towards Brazil and the final chapter of the 2006 Formula 1 World Championship. With recent strong competitive performances the team looks forward to finishing the season on a high.
Tiago Monteiro: "Overall I think we had a decent race, the first stint was very good considering we were carrying a lot of fuel. I was able to fight with the Toro Rosso and Red Bull cars after passing Sato and Yamamoto very quickly. I followed the rhythm of the people in front very closely, knowing I had more fuel onboard. We were the last to stop but during the second stint we had some tyre issues which made the car difficult to drive. The times dropped off and although we were good towards the end of the race we need to analyse what caused this. We brought the car home which is always good and it's nice to be back finishing races again."
Christijan Albers: "After the start we had some problems but we still managed to be competitive with the Red Bull cars. They were holding me up a little in the corners but then their top speed meant they were able to pull away on the straights. I think it was a shame for all the guys as we worked hard this weekend. The team will investigate what happened to cause my retirement and we will see what we can achieve in Brazil."
Dominic Harlow, (Head of race and test engineering): "It was a very tight race but a disappointing result for us. It was very competitive and until Christijan went out with a mechanical failure we were pushing our rivals, as we had done all weekend. We will investigate what took place and make adjustments to avoid this happening again. Tiago was on a good race strategy with a long first stint but he struggled with car balance in the middle of the race. This meant he lost a lot of time and prevented him making much of an impact towards the end."
Colin Kolles, (Team Principal): "We had high hopes for this race as once again we looked competitive with our rivals throughout the weekend. Christijan was unlucky to suffer his mechanical failure as he looked as though he had out-run his rivals approaching the first stop. Tiago drove well to finish the race as I know he had balance and tyre issues. We now head for home before looking forward to finishing our season on a high in Brazil."
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