Monteiro 'annoyed' by traffic

The Portuguese blamed traffic problems for not managing a better time in the session and claimed his car had the potential to do a lot better than 20th position.

"It was very annoying, because we were running smoothly all weekend, making steady progress, and then you get to qualifying, with only 15 minutes to make the cut, and we got impeded by traffic," said Monteiro.

"On both tentative laps, I couldn't get up to speed because of slower cars ahead of me.

"The track had a lot less traction than yesterday because of the rain, but I'm just really annoyed that I couldn't get a run at a clear lap. It's really frustrating, because this heat wasn't indicative of our true performance. We could have gone a lot faster."

Teammate Christijan Albers endured similar traffic problems during the first 15-minute session and the Dutchman had to settle for 18th place.

"Obviously, I'm not pleased with where we ended up," admitted Albers. "I ran into some traffic on my fast lap. Actually, I was surprised, because the car that held me up was a Honda and I couldn't believe how quickly I came up behind him.

"But overall, it wasn't too bad out there. I was encouraged by the performance of the tyres - they were a lot better than the ones I had yesterday. The guys worked hard to solve our problems and the car as a whole was working much better."