By nGO
May 28 2006

Despite a red flag on an overcrowded track, both drivers qualified while staying out of trouble. Sato will start tomorrow's grand prix 19th and Montagny will start 20th.

There was fear that Monaco qualifying was going to be chaos, especially the first session. But apart from Massa's visit to the martini banner, qualifying turned out to be a harmless blocking fest. Although Sato and Montagny encountered traffic on their fastest laps they were pleased and still managed to set lap times similar to saturday practice. Due to the  Schumacher Incident both Aguri cars have been promoted one place.

Sato looks forward to the challenge as he lines up 20th having set a best time of 1:17.148, "Free practice went smoothly for us this morning. We tried both race set-up and performance runs and I was satisfied with the balance of the car. For Qualifying we were able to complete our planned runs, but unfortunately I got caught in traffic on my quickest lap, which is a little disappointing but normal for Monaco. However, from my point of view, we did the best we could during a busy Qualifying session. It is going to be a long and tough race tomorrow and I am looking forward to the challenge as anything could happen!"

Third time lucky as Montagny completes his first error free qualifying run, he will start 20th after setting a best time of 1:17.502, "I think that this was my best Qualifying session since I started with the SAF1 Team. I tried very hard but unfortunately I had traffic on the first lap of my two runs, so I had to do my quick lap during my second run, but this went ok. The car is quite hard to drive and it is going to be a tough race for us, but I am looking forward to it."

Aguri hopes for the team's second two car finish for tomorrow, "I am happy with the progress that we have made so far this weekend. We have not made any errors during the practice or Qualifying sessions and I think that we reached the full potential of the car today. Both drivers did well to control the SA05’s and even though our starting positions are at the back of the grid as usual, our times are improving with every race. A small mistake of any kind on this tough circuit could have caused big problems, but both of our drivers, the mechanics and the engineers have done a great job here. Our next goal is to achieve a two-car finish again and Monaco would be the perfect place to do it."