Montagny laments bad luck

Montagny had proved more than a match for Sato during practice for his first race at Super Aguri, but it all went wrong in qualifying.

"During the practice session this morning we found quite a good set-up for the car and continued with it in the afternoon, making only a small modification," he said. "But we encountered many problems during the qualifying session.

"Firstly, when I had to stop at the FIA weight scales, there was a problem with the starter so during this time my tyres were out of the blankets and were getting cold.

"When I re-started and put on new tyres five minutes later, the red flag situation came up, so I could not make a lap time. It is a little disappointing as this was my first qualifying with the team, but there were no major problems with the car and I am looking forward to the race tomorrow."

Sato also suffered from the red flag incident too, having lost time in the morning with a brake problem.

"We had a difficult start to the morning," explained the Japanese driver. "We needed a lot of work to improve the balance of the car, but then as we suffered a brake related issue which required some time to investigate we were unable to complete the running we needed.

"The guys did a good job in solving this problem and we made a set-up change, then I was happier with the car balance for Qualifying. It is a shame that there was some confusion about the Red Flag situation during my second qualifying attack, but I am feeling positive about tomorrow's race."