A pit stop to repair a damaged suspension wishbone cost Brendon Hartley any chance of repeating his Thursday free practice form during qualifying for the 3.5 Renault World Series race at Monaco yesterday.
Having been second fastest in the 28-car field two days ago, Hartley had to pit midway through
yesterday's 25-minute qualifying session for his mechanics to repair right rear suspension damaged when he brushed the Armco barrier.
Hartley lost valuable track time and, with fewer laps than virtually every other driver, qualified 11th (1m 27.974s) for tonight's race.
Englishman Oliver Turvey grabbed pole, ahead of South African Adrian Zaugg, with Spaniard Miguel Molina third.
Hartley's Red Bull car is entered by the French Tech 1 team, unbeaten in the past two years at Monaco.
Three Kiwis are contesting support races at Monaco this weekend. Hartley and Chris van der Drift are competing in the 3.5 Renault V6 race, while Matt Halliday is a front-runner in the Porsche Carrera SuperCup series.
Meanwhile, after a day of talks, Formula One's teams and their governing body failed to reach agreement to cut costs and revise plans for a budget cap next year.
The teams met for more than two hours in Monaco yesterday and then, having agreed to remain united, met FIA president Max Mosley.
But after a meeting of nearly three hours, FOTA, led by Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo, said they had not been able to reach any accord.
Mosley insists on a cost-cutting strategy and believes his proposal for a budget cap of £40 million is the only sensible approach.
The teams reject this and believe they have a superior proposal.
