USGP: You can't win the race on the first lap

By Huw Alban
July 2 2006

Midland F1 were again smacked out of a Grand Prix by a Super Aguri car. Tiago Monterio running in a solid ninth place received a tap from the Super Aguri of Takuma Sato, and he's not a happy bunny.

An incident at the first corner on the first lap of the United Stated Grand Prix brought out the safety car. Tiago Monteiro benefited greatly from the incident moving up to 9th place in the pack. At the restart, that good fortune turned to disaster as Takuma Sato attempted to make up places at turn 1 taking the Portuguese into retirement.

ITVs Louise Goodman caught up with Tiago once he had returned to the garage.

"Tiago, you must have been feeling so relieved to make it through all the fuss at the first start, and then taken out by Sato at the next one," she asked.

"Yeah, you're right," Tiago replied. "I was really happy and relieved to get through the first mess. I saw two cars rolling - it was a big mess. I saw a gap and I actually made contact with another car but I was able to go through and I was P9 - minding my own world.

"And then suddenly once again one of the Aguri Suzuki drivers tried to win the race on the first lap. It doesn't work you know, you've got 70 laps to go, everybody's pushing hard, you have to be a little bit more careful. It's not the first time, that's what is really annoying and look at the results. He's out, I'm out, it's a wasted opportunity 'cos again we've been competitive all weekend and I think we could have scored points due to the circumstances this weekend."

Later in the TV coverage ITV also caught up with Takuma Sato and live on the air the Japanese driver flatly accused Monteiro of turning in on him. "It's a bit like the primary school playground isn't it? It wasn't me it was him!" commented ITV commentator Martin Brundle.

Roll on France...

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