Montagny welcomes maiden F1 finish

Following two retirements in his first two races with Super Aguri, Montagny overcame an early race battle with Midland's Tiago Monteiro to come home 16th.

"I am happy to have finished a Grand Prix for the first time and the fact that it is has been here in Monaco makes it a special race," said the Frenchman. "I had a good fight with Monteiro for 40 laps, however I am sure that he will not say the same, but this is racing after all.

"The car was hard to drive but I still enjoyed it. On the positive side we have collected 70 laps of data, so I am happy about that. We can now work towards improving the car with this latest information for the next race."

Teammate Takuma Sato was not so lucky on the reliability front, as he was the race's first retirement due to an electrical problem.

"I am very disappointed not to have finished the race," said the Japanese driver. "Up to my retirement I had enjoyed it immensely and although we did not make a great start, I had moved up a few positions and the car was running well.

"Our pitstop strategy and traffic control enabled me to make consistent runs and to push all the time. But suddenly we encountered an electrical issue and the speed dramatically dropped, so I came back to the pits and we made a setting change, but after one lap we suffered total failure and I had to retire from the race.

"It is a shame because the team has done such a great job this weekend and our progress has been very encouraging. I am also personally extremely disappointed not to have finished this Grand Prix, but that is motor racing and I will try again next year."