Monteiro Hopeful of Points Finish

The Jordan driver, who has finished every race so far this season, completed a solid performance in today's qualifying session to finish as 17th quickest.

"I am very happy with my qualifying lap, which was very clean with no mistake," said Monteiro. "I felt confident in the car so I was able to push really hard. We have made some changes with my engineers after the two sessions this morning and it was very helpful.

"I am now looking forward to driving tomorrow and I hope we will be able to finish the race and maybe be in the points."

Monteiro was clearly the quickest of the Jordan drivers, outpacing teammate Narain Karthikeyan by over a second.

Karthikeyan was the third man to jump onto the track and he claimed he was also handicapped by the track temperatures.

"I was the third driver to go in qualifying this afternoon so the circuit was still very dusty," said the Indian, 19th today. "Moreover, the track temperature was very high, I think it was close to 50°C, therefore my car was quite difficult to drive.

"I have also made a small mistake, which cost me some time. Now we will focus on improving the car for my first race in Nurburgring tomorrow."