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Team and Driver Quotes following the Race
(selected
team quotes, for a full team and driver report click on the team name) McLaren Mercedes ( Juan Pablo Montoya -
1st, Kimi Raikkonen - 4th ) RON DENNIS
"A stressful race, Juan Pablo did a great job
especially looking after the tyre in the final laps of the race. We knew it was not dangerous, and we had the race in control. It
was disappointing as our strategists had calculated that Kimi, without his tyre problem, would have moved up to second place after
Fernando Alonso's final pitstop. All in all we had a great strategy, and Kimi drove an excellent race. The mathematics clearly
demonstrate that we are still capable of winning both World Championships, but of course it is going to be somewhat challenging. As
history shows, we love a challenge" Full Team
and Driver Race Report Back to Top Renault ( Fernando Alonso -
2nd, Giancarlo Fisichella
- 3rd ) Flavio Briatore, Managing
Director
"The team had a great race
this afternoon. Two drivers on the podium was what we wanted this weekend, and we achieved it. Monza is always a tough circuit for
engines, but ours were perfect all the way through; the tyre performance from Michelin was very good; and we had the right strategy.
I want to congratulate Giancarlo on a fantastic drive from eighth on the grid to finish on the podium at his home Grand Prix.
Fernando did a superb job, and is in a stronger position for the championship now. There is a 27 point gap, but we are taking it
week by week and not getting excited. Spa will be another important race in one week's time, so let's see what happens." Full Team
and Driver Race Report Back to Top Toyota ( Jarno Trulli -
5th, Ralf Schumacher - 6th ) Tsutomu Tomita - Team
Principal
"That was a very good race for us. We were the
third quickest team behind McLaren and Renault and I don't think we could have done any better. We were very happy with our race
strategy. We lost a couple of places early on because other cars were running lighter than us. But our strategy was proved to be
right because we ended up ahead of them at the flag. The points mean we are opening a gap to the teams behind us but more
importantly we are making ground on Ferrari. Now we are only eight points behind with four races left. We are closing on them and we
will push hard to catch them and make it into the top three. We will also continue to work hard on the technical side to close the
gap in pace to the top two." Full Team
and Driver Race Report Back to Top Williams
BMW ( Antonio Pizzonia - 7th, Mark Webber - 14th ) Sam
Michael (Technical Director, WilliamsF1): It was a good drive from Antonio, a fantastic result considering he did not drive the
car for some time until yesterday morning. It is a shame that Mark damaged his front wing in the first corner. It became clear as
the race unfolded that we have improved the car's pace compared to other teams around us. The gap to McLaren is still our biggest
focus. Unfortunately due to the qualifying order we did not maximise the potential of our cars today. Full Team
and Driver Race Report Back to Top BAR Honda (
Jenson Button - 8th, Takuma Sato - 16th ) GIL DE FERRAN,
SPORTING DIRECTOR
"Obviously we were hoping for a better result after
starting both cars on the second row. After a good start things were going fairly well, however we had a problem with the fuel
delivery with both drivers during their first stop which compromised our strategy, particularly for Taku who had to do an extra
stop. Furthermore the handling on both cars deteriorated during the race reducing our pace significantly. Although we are
disappointed with this weekend's results we are looking forward to a very different challenge in Spa" Full Team
and Driver Race Report Back to Top Sauber ( Felipe Massa -
9th, Jacques Villeneuve - 11th ) Peter Sauber (Team Principal): "I can't remember another race where all 20 cars
that started made it to the finish. Today it was therefore impossible to benefit from anyone else's unreliability. It was satisfying
to go from 12th and 15th on the grid to 11th and ninth in the race, but unfortunately that did not enable us to score any points. It
was an exciting Grand Prix, however, which had some dramatic repercussions in the fight for the World Championship." Full Team
and Driver Race Report Back to Top Ferrari
( Michael Schumacher - 10th, Rubens Barrichello - 12th ) Jean Todt: “Yet another painful day in what has been a
difficult season for us. We fought really hard to try and finish in the points, but we did not manage it. This was another big
disappointment with both cars making it to the finish but with no points to our name. We are very disappointed for our fans and our
staff who were here in the grandstand at Monza. The main problem afflicting us is, as everyone knows, a lack of grip and all we can
do is continue to work with our partners at Bridgestone to fix it. Next weekend, in the Belgian Grand Prix, at Spa- Francorchamps,
we can once again expect a difficult weekend. But hopefully we can show that this current situation can be turned around in the
final three rounds of the championship. Despite the fact that we are going through very difficult times, the team and the drivers
have once again worked very hard. We have shown that we are really determined to get the most out of the package we have at our
disposal.” Full Team and
Driver Race Report Back to Top Red Bull (
Christian Klien - 13th, David Coulthard - 15th ) Christian Horner,
Sporting Director:
“In a race that had remarkable reliability with all competitors finishing, we unfortunately paid the penalty
of David’s first lap incident when he touched the back of Fisichella’s car. He then had to stop early and change the front wing.
After that, we changed his strategy to a one-stop, rather than a two. Christian also got delayed on the first lap and,
unfortunately, didn’t have a strong enough pace to make forward progress. For us, this was a fairly unmemorable race.” Full Team
and Driver Race Report Back to Top Jordan
( Tiago Monteiro - 17th, Narain Karthikeyan - 14th ) ADRIAN BURGESS, SPORTING DIRECTOR
“It was an
exciting race as ever. Both cars had good starts off the grid but unfortunately, at the first corner, Narain was rammed from behind,
resulting in a left rear puncture, which effectively finished his afternoon in terms of having a good battle with everyone. Tiago
kept his head down and got on with his job. However, both cars struggled with tyre performance, which hampered them all the way to
the end. Narain had a small off near the end in the gravel which meant we had to have another stop for precautionary checks, as we
did not want to endanger him or the car. Both cars went to the end; 15 out of 15 finishes for Tiago. Now we are looking forward to
gaining more performance out of the B-car as we get more mileage and data from it. We will have two EJ15Bs at the next race so we
are happy with that prospect.” Full Team
and Driver Race Report Back to Top Minardi
( Robert Doornbos - 18th, Christijan Albers - 19th ) PAUL STODDART,
Team Principal, Minardi Cosworth
“It was a somewhat disappointing race from
the Minardi standpoint, because although both cars took the chequered flag, our pace suggested we should have finished in better
positions than we did. We were ahead of the Jordans on pace and, in fact, our best lap was less than one-and-a-half seconds shy of
Michael Schumacher’s fastest race lap. Unfortunately, Christijan tangled with Narain Karthikeyan on the first corner of the first
lap, which necessitated an unscheduled pit stop, and then, later in the race, he was assessed a drive-through penalty for failing to
move over quickly enough for Felipe Massa. Christijan simply didn’t hear the call on the radio to do so, and we subsequently
apologised to Sauber for this. If Christijan had enjoyed a clean race, I believe he would have finished ahead of both Jordans, and
his lap times certainly reflect that. Robert, on the other hand, drove a trouble-free race to finish in P18.”
Full Team
and Driver Race Report Back to Top Bridgestone Hisao Suganuma – Technical Manager – Bridgestone Motorsport
“A tough race today. Rubens picked up something on track and started
to lose air in his left rear tyre. Fortunately the sensor picked it up and he was able to change the tyre before the condition
worsened any further. The car-tyre package was just not performing as well as it is capable of so we shall need to analyse the data
carefully. We need to improve this performance for the future. There are still four more races to go so we shall try our best to
turn the situation around.” Full
Bridgestone Race Report Back to Top Michelin Pierre Dupasquier, Michelin motorsport director
“Despite McLaren’s
magnificent victory, the team obviously had some kind of tyre issue today. When we saw Kimi Räi kkönen’s cut left rear we were
curious about the cause, but Montoya’s late-race incident illustrates there was a problem of some kind and we will look at this
closely with our colleagues from McLaren.
“Tyre wear on the outside edge of a carcase is extremely unusual here – normally it’s
the inside shoulder that bears the bulk of the load down the long straights. We had no problems at illustrates why F1 should remain
an open competition between rival companies.” Full
Michelin Race Report Back to Top
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