Qualifying for
Sunday’s Italian
Grand Prix, which
took place this
afternoon at the
Autodromo Nazionale
di Monza in
near-perfect racing
conditions, yielded
18th and 20th places
on the grid for
Minardi F1 Team
drivers,
Robert Doornbos
and
Christijan Albers.
While Doornbos had a
smooth, trouble-free
qualifying lap,
Albers lost out on
setting a
competitive time
when he ran wide
into the gravel at
the second Lesmo
bend while pushing
hard. Miraculously,
he managed to
wrestle his car back
onto the circuit,
but lost over two
seconds in the
process. Earlier,
during Saturday
morning’s two
practice sessions,
Doornbos and Albers
continued to work on
fine-tuning the
handling of their
chassis, and carried
out final
preparations for
their qualifying
runs.
ROBERT
DOORNBOS (Best lap:
1 min 24.904 secs;
Position: 18th)
“It’s been a strong
weekend so far for
the Minardi team,
and also for me. We
have been able to
find a good set-up
for the car, and I
have been able to be
quick in every
practice session. I
was a little bit
apprehensive about
qualifying, as we
had a technical
problem in Turkey
and I was a bit too
enthusiastic in
Hungary, but we had
a good, clean lap
here today.
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While Doornbos had a smooth, trouble-free qualifying
lap at Monza today, Albers lost out on setting a
competitive time when he ran wide into the gravel at
the second Lesmo bend |
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Qualifying this afternoon for Sunday’s Italian
Grand Prix yielded 18th and 20th positions on the
grid for the Minardi F1 Team's
drivers, Robert
Doornbos and
Christijan Albers |
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"It’s nice to see that we can really fight with the Jordans,
and I hope it continues this way for me tomorrow.”
CHRISTIJAN ALBERS (Best lap: 1 min 26.964 secs; Position:
20th)
“It was a shame about qualifying
today, but it can happen when you are driving on the limit –
sometimes you go over it. I’m sorry for the boys, as well,
since they worked hard on the car. Anyway, tomorrow’s a new
day, and you score points for the race, not qualifying, so
we’ll see what we can do.”
PAUL STODDART, Team Principal,
Minardi Cosworth
“Both drivers did very solid jobs
today. It was a shame about Christijan’s mistake in the
second sector of his qualifying lap, because clearly, both
Minardis are again on the pace of the team’s nearest
rivals. As ever, we look forward to an interesting race
tomorrow.”
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