By nGO
July 2 2006

Montagny was knocked out from a first lap incident while Sato's ambitious move on Monteiro put an end to his race.

Montagny could not avoid the first lap clash, which saw multiple drivers knocked out, Heidfeld rolling over spectacularly - no one was hurt.

Sato was running in 11th place and down the straight he had the tow on Monteiro, but then came an overly ambitious move for which Monteiro would not yield. Sato was entering into the corner too hot and as Monteiro turned in, contact was made by Sato to the side of Monteiro's car bringing an end to both their races making this a disastrous race for Super Aguri.

Takuma sato “This is a disappointing end to a positive weekend. At the start of the race everyone packed into turn one and I managed to avoid the accident. I was prepared for the re-start and after the safety car went in I caught up to DC and Monteiro and at the end of the straight I was half a car length up beside Monteiro as I raced with him into turn one. He obviously saw me and he just kept pushing across me.  By this time we had already started braking, so I couldn't go anywhere and he just kept coming and I ran out of space. I had to go over the kerb to avoid him, which is very high on this circuit, and this unfortunately launched the car up and off the track.”

Montagny "It was quite a bad weekend. In Canada and here in Indy we only did two laps in both races. There was nothing I could do today. I am very careful normally at the start of the race because I know we can't really fight with the others, so I don't take the risk and I prefer to finish the race. I went on the inside, braked normally and easily. I think Coulthard pushed against Klein and he spun in front of me and you can't stop a car when it's going 200 clicks and the car in front is only 5 metres away."

Aguri "It was a very bad day for us. Franck could not manoeuvre to avoid the accident at the start as it happened right in front of him. Taku was running in a good position when he tried to overtake Monteiro who then closed the door in front of him. I don’t know who was at fault there, but what matters is that both of our cars were out at the beginning of the race and that is extremely disappointing."