02/07/2006
NEWS STORY
Third win and first one-two finish of the season for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro. This is the twelfth win for the Prancing Horse in a Grand Prix held in the United States, the sixth at Indianapolis, number 186 from 733 races. For Michael Schumacher this is his eighty seventh win from 242 Grand Prix starts, the fifth at this circuit.
Jean Todt: We have been dreaming of a result like this for a while now and finally it has come. After an extraordinary qualifying yesterday, we knew that if all the pieces of the jigsaw – reliability, consistent performance from the Bridgestone tyres, the work of the drivers and the team – fitted together, we were capable of getting the job done and that's what happened. After the strange 2005 race, run in circumstances that we don't want to go over again and won by Ferrari on a Technical Knock Out, today we repeated the result by being superior to all our rivals. This is the best possible start to the second half of the season and a one-two finish is a further encouragement to tackle the eight remaining races in the best possible way.
Michael Schumacher: I am very happy! It was a great weekend: first with Germany in the semi-final, then Italy, pole position yesterday and now this great victory today! We had prepared very well for these last two races, but for some reason, in Canada we were unable to demonstrate that fact. Here however, we have been strong since the start of free practice on Friday, in part due to the Bridgestone tyres. We have made up six points which are important for the championships and we want to keep moving forward this way, fighting, pushing to the maximum and trying to win every time! Now we go back to Europe where we will try and continue to fight back. I want to thank the whole team who did a marvellous job!
Felipe Massa: It was a fantastic race for us, in which we showed that the championship is not yet over. The team has done an incredible job this weekend. Everything worked well, especially the Bridgestone tyres. The start went very, very well for me and I managed to pass Michael. I had a very strong first stint, but he managed to pass me during the first pit stop, when I had a clutch problem which slowed me, but I was still motivated to fight hard for second place to give the team the maximum number of points from this race. First and second is a fantastic day for us and an important day in my career.
Ross Brawn: Everything went to plan today. It all felt good, especially on the tyre front, from the first day when they already delivered the grip we needed. We had seen some tyre graining at first, but this disappeared in the race. In fact the Bridgestone tyres were perfect and they allowed us to have an easy weekend and an easy race. The team and drivers did a great job. Put all those elements together and you get a performance like the one we saw today. We had a few races where it went the wrong way and today the momentum came back to us in a substantial way. I was surprised at the gap to the Renaults, but I don't think this is an indication for the future. I think the remaining races will be much closer. Now we have to keep the impetus going: in Magny-Cours, good tyres will once again be important and we will also have some improvements to the car that I am optimistic about.
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