Monteiro makes history for Portugal 20 Jun 2005
Amid the controversy surrounding Sunday’s race at Indianapolis, Jordan’s Tiago Monteiro quietly entered the Formula One record books as the first Portuguese driver to finish on the podium.
Just four Portuguese drivers have participated in the sport, arguably the most famous being Pedro Lamy, who scored his country’s first Formula One point with sixth place for Minardi in the 1995 Australian Grand Prix.
Monteiro went five points better than that at Indianapolis after finishing third behind the two Ferraris. Not surprisingly, the 28-year-old was unable to hide his delight, despite the unusual background to his success.
“I have mixed feelings today as it was a strange race with no one being there,” he said. “However, for me, it was still a race. I had to fight with my team mate and competitors at the beginning and push as hard as in a normal race. I know these were weird conditions but nobody can take this away from me.”
Monteiro’s result, along with Narain Karthikeyan’s fourth place in the sister Jordan, moves the team up to eighth in the constructors’ standings on 11 points, just one behind Sauber.
Both Jordan drivers will be back in action later this week when they test in Barcelona from Thursday.
