Monteiro's 'best' sets new Portuguese record.

Not content with establishing and extending a new record for the number of consecutive races finishes for a rookie, Jordan's Tiago Monteiro has now erased all previous marks for Portuguese qualifying performances.

Monteiro posted the 13th quickest time of the single session at Interlagos, putting himself ahead of both Williams-BMWs and David Coulthard's Red Bull-Cosworth, as well as usual rivals Minardi, and then gained another place courtesy of Toyota's decision to change the engine in the back of Jarno Trulli's car between practice and qualifying.

Although elevated to a career-best twelfth, one race after posting a genuine point-scoring finish at Spa, and on a circuit renowned as one of the tougher obstacles on the schedule - not to mention in front of fans that speak the same tongue - Monteiro had already bettered the previous highest qualifying position by a Portuguese driver - the 14th place jointly achieved by Pedro Lamy and M?rio Ara?jo Cabral.

Monteiro was quick to pay tribute to the Jordan team, and to the revised EJ15B, for the part they played in a lap he appeared to complete without fault, in particular extending his advantage over those who would end up behind him during the technical second sector. Of those directly ahead of the Jordan, eleventh-placed Jacques Villeneuve was just 15-thousandths of second clear, with Ralf Schumacher's Toyota a tenth ahead, and Rubens Barrichello's Ferrari a couple of tenths.

"It was one of my best laps of the weekend, and it all went very well," he reported, "I could attack and the lap was clear and without problems. We are satisfied because, the more we run with this new car, the more we are headed in the right direction and, moreso, we have a margin where we can progress further. The tyres are getting to temperature quickly now and we could lap quickly in complete confidence, which we couldn't before.

"I am also very close to the drivers who are in front of me - there are six drivers within four-tenths and Fernando Alonso, who took pole, is only 1.3secs ahead of me. All this gives an enormous motivation to me and a small team like Jordan. Now we want to continue doing our best and, if possible, try to go out and score more points tomorrow."