Monteiro Calls for Jordan Improvement

Although the Portuguese driver maintained his 100 percent finishing record in Formula One with a 13th place finish on Sunday, the fact that Jordan were outpaced by Minardi throughout the weekend has left a cloud over his achievements.

"Six race finishes in a row is an important thing obviously in order to collect as much information as possible," said Monteiro. "After this weekend, we need to do a lot of things to improve the car because we have been struggling throughout the three days.

"It was a hard race on the car and tyres but also mentally as we had to stay focussed in order to stay on track, not make any mistake, let faster drivers pass by and bring the car to the finish.

"It is a bit frustrating as so many cars made it to the end but if we look at the positive side, we were one of them."

Monteiro's success in reaching the chequered flag again was in contrast to teammate Narain Karthikeyan's fortunes at Monaco, where a brush with the barriers early in the race led to several pitstops and eventual retirement on lap 23.

"It is really a pity I had to retire," said the Indian. "I made a decent start and then I had a touch with the barrier, which damaged the hydraulic system. This explains why we had to pit early in the race. The team did a good job to try to fix it but unfortunately it was not possible and I had to retire.

"The whole weekend was very difficult for us, so now we have to make sure we will do better in the European Grand Prix next week."