22/05/2005
NEWS STORY
Jean Todt: This weekend ended much as we expected. Although we had a car-tyre package that was very quick in the race, the characteristics of this circuit meant that neither of our drivers was able to overtake slower cars which would have allowed them to exploit the potential of the car. On the track, Michael's race was conditioned by what happened during the incident behind the Minardi. He could not avoid colliding with Coulthard, which broke the front wing. Michael therefore had to pit earlier than expected. Rubens also had some troubles. As he was about to leave the pits after his stop, his engine stalled and, as he rejoined the track he broke the pit lane speed limit and had to return for a penalty. The outcome of the race shows once again we have to work very hard on improving the performance of our package in qualifying. Our rivals have built the basis of their success on the one flying lap which leaves us to fight an uphill battle in the race.
Michael Schumacher: Everything that could go wrong seemed to go wrong at the beginning. I got stuck behind the Minardi that blocked the track and then I had to pit to change the nose on the car. It is clear when you look at the times that we had a very competitive race pace. It is a shame that we were not able to get the most out of it. But, given everything that happened, I have to be reasonably happy with my two points. As for my move on Rubens, we are all here to race and I did not think there was much risk involved in the move.
Rubens Barrichello: All sorts of thing happened in this race. My car stalled in the pits unfortunately, which cost me a lot of time, but I had a really good car. The tyres were excellent throughout and meant I had a good pace, but here there is so little space to overtake, I could not make the most of the tyres. I lost a position to Michael right at the end, as I was trying to overtake Ralf. Michael took a gamble for the extra point. The most important thing we can take away from here is that the car was very good in the race.
Ross Brawn: It was a bit of a frustrating afternoon, because you could see in the middle of the race that our car had huge potential. Michael set the fastest lap when he still had a lot of fuel in the car. But this was typical of the type of race you can expect to have at this circuit if you do not qualify well. Basically, we had to follow other cars and were not able to use our pace. The tyres were perfect for the race, but we were not able to qualify well and here we paid very heavily for that. Things might have been different if Michael had not got caught up in the mess behind the Minardi, while Rubens stalled in the pits which cost him a lot of time. So, a lot of potential, but we could not use it.