Monteiro finishes Barcelona test

The second day of testing for the MidlandF1 team and their Portuguese driver, Tiago Monteiro, started slowly on Wednesday as the chill in the Catalan air early in the morning made it impossible to take to the Spanish track before 11:30 am. First up Tiago went out on intermediate tyres, with the aim of defining the M16’s set up under these conditions of little grip, before embarking on a dry tyre program.

However, he could only clock up 35 laps overall and ended up finishing his final testing day this week very early, which prevented him from securing a strong time on the leaderboard, as the track improved a lot with the lapping of several contenders. Then, after lunch Christijan Albers took over from Tiago at the wheel of the only M16 available.

"The day dealt with the choice of tyres for the Bahrain and Malaysian Grand Prix. Accordingly, we tested various components and constructions,” Tiago Monteiro explained." We know which tyres we will use for each of them, in spite of the hiccups imposed this morning with a damp track. Our results and conclusions are positive."

"This week’s test in Barcelona was very important for us. Yesterday, we spent the day checking that everything was working well on board the M16, and to define its best set up. Today, we concentrated exclusively on tyres. Christijan will continue the test, while hoping to refine the set up a little more, and to find certain interesting solutions. We will then proceed with the shake down of the second new M16 chassis, before flying to Bahrain."