30/07/2006
NEWS STORY
Fifth win and second one-two of the season for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro – a fifth win for Michael Schumacher too. This is the nineteenth German Grand Prix win for the Prancing Horse, number 188 from 735 races. For Michael Schumacher this is his eighty ninth win from 244 Grand Prix starts, the fourth at this circuit and his seventieth at the wheel of a Ferrari.
Jean Todt: A dream result! The race was trouble free, the car was perfect, the drivers impeccable with Bridgestone tyres clearly superior to their competitors. The moment from this day I will keep in my mind is the podium ceremony, that featured my three favourite drivers. Tomorrow, we will come down to earth and think about the next race in Budapest. I have always maintained that as long as it was mathematically possible, we would continue to pursue our objectives. That's what we are doing and what we will continue to do. However, we really must keep our feet on the ground even more than usual. We have “only” had a one-two, even if that in itself is quite something! Finally on behalf of all at Ferrari I would like to pay a special tribute to Bridgestone on securing their one hundredth Formula 1 victory. Finally I am happy to point out that, today, three Ferrari F430 GTC took the first three places in the Spa- Francorchamps 24 Hours in the GT2 category.
Michael Schumacher: Superb! I can't begin to find the right adjectives to describe the car-engine-Bridgestone tyre package and the performance of the whole team. We worked hard at last week's Paul Ricard test and I am very happy that today that work bore fruit. I want to congratulate Felipe, who drove a great race. It was very important to have made up several points over our main rivals at the key moment of the season. I had no problems whatsoever all weekend and I have to say that winning here in front of my fans makes it a really special victory. Already, during this morning's Driver Parade I got a great feeling seeing all the support I had in the crowd and I am happy to have been able to pay them back with this win. The fight for both titles is now very open. There are still six races to go and there is still room to push and put those in front of us under more pressure. I am confident and keen to get back on with the next few races.
Felipe Massa: We did an even better job than expected. I saw yesterday morning that we had a really good pace for the race; especially my speed on old tyres was very surprising. I was therefore convinced we would have an even stronger car for the race. That is how it turned out. After a good start and good first pit stop I saw that I had a big gap to the following cars and from then on I concentrated on looking after the car and bringing it home. I drove an intelligent race in what was an important one for the team at this stage of the season, given our targets in both championships. Now it will be important for us to continue moving forward with this same momentum and concentration to the end of the championship. I hope that, in the short term, we can repeat this performance in seven days in Budapest.
Ross Brawn: It would be hard to ask for a better result! The cars were perfect, as were the Bridgestone tyres and the engine: everything worked to perfection. When I saw Kimi go in for his first pit stop, it confirmed what we had been expecting and from then to the end of the race it was a case of looking after the car and the tyres which we did without any problems. In the last few races, we have introduced some new components on the 248 F1 and this result is down to all the hard work carried out by the Scuderia. Michael and Felipe were perfect and today we have made significant progress in both championships. There is every reason to be optimistic for the rest of the season, although we know we must stay calm and concentrate.
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