Adrian, Fisichella to start 19th, 20th in Monaco Grand Prix

Monaco, May 25 (UNI) Force India drivers Adrian Sutil and Giancarlo Fisichella braved inhospitable weather and adverse track conditions to finish 19th and 20th respectively during the Monaco Grand Prix qualifiers here.

Adrian struggled with traffic on his fastest laps and, despite posting the eighth quickest time of the one-hour practice session in the morning, his best potential qualifying laps were interrupted.

''I felt my first laps were quite good, but then I had to pass a couple of cars in the first sector. It is really only two tenths or so, but from that point on it's difficult to get in the rhythm,'' Adrian said after the race yesterday.

''We had planned to do two laps but you never know whether there will be traffic so we left some margin with the fuel and I could stay out for a few more laps to get some better ones in,'' he added. ''There were some positives though: at least we have got the tyre problem fixed and they are working well now.'' Giancarlo's runs were, however, hampered as a knock-on result of a mechanical issue that originated in the morning practice.

Midway through the session, his car developed a gearbox problem and he sat out the rest of the session after completing just 10 laps.

Unfortunately the team was then obliged to change the gearbox and received a five grid place penalty as a result.

Giancarlo could only complete two rather than his three planned runs, but unfortunately on both his quickest laps he too hit traffic and will start this 200th race in a frustrating 20th position.

''It was a disappointing qualifying session and, in fact, whole day,'' he lamented. ''This morning I had a problem with the gearbox and we had to change it, so I would have been penalised five places anyway, but then it was only ready about 14:05 so we didn't have enough time to do three runs.

''My first run was not great, but the second was better but then I lost the chance to do a quick lap as I got caught behind Barrichello just after the swimming pool as he was slowing down.

Very very frustrating.'' The Monaco Grix Prix starts today with the two Ferrari's of Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen in pole position.

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