02/04/2005
NEWS STORY
After spending the morning practice sessions finalising qualification and race specification for their Jordan EJ15 chassis, without encountering any technical problems, Narain Karthikeyan and Tiago Monteiro set times 17th and 18th quickest in the first qualifying session for the Bahrain Grand Prix tomorrow. Both drivers found the car's balance had changed a little bit between practice this morning and qualifying, probably due to the hot temperature of the track (540C).
Narain Karthikeyan: My lap was good in general but the air and track temperatures were very high so it will be interesting to see what will happen during the race. I really enjoyed driving on this circuit as there are lot of straights and stops. Now I am looking forward to racing tomorrow and I hope we will finish the race again.
Tiago Monteiro: It is very tricky to get everything together in only one qualifying lap, especially for a rookie. I do not seem to be pushing at the limit at the moment and I should push harder. I have to improve a couple of small things and I am sure it will come with experience. I will practice qualifying laps a lot when we are back in Europe. Now I am closer to Narain compared to Melbourne and Sepang, so I am definitely getting better.
Trevor Carlin: We are slightly disappointed not to be a little bit closer to the ultimate pace as we had a very good morning run with both cars. Maybe the higher temperatures have just affected our balance, but we still think we have a good set up for the Grand Prix tomorrow.