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2005 Spanish Formula 1 Grand Prix
What the teams and drivers said - Sunday

Team and Driver Quotes following the Race

(selected team quotes, for a full team and driver preview click on the team name)

McLaren Mercedes ( Kimi Raikkonen - 1st, Juan Pablo Montoya 7th )

Ron Dennis
"A tremendous race for the team and a truly dominant performance by Kimi. His only problem was to find the discipline to actually slow down, once he had established a significant lead. Juan Pablo's race could have been so much better but an electrical problem which activated the safety system on the fuel rig almost certainly cost him a podium finish. Throughout the race, the performance of the Michelin tyres on both cars was great and certainly contributed a significant amount to the outcome."

Full Team and Driver Race Report  Back to Top

Renault ( Fernando Alonso - 2nd, Giancarlo Fisichella - 5th )

Flavio Briatore, Managing Director
"You can't win all the races in a season and on days like this, you need to be able to think about the championship as well. Today, we have scored a fantastic result for the team: we got both cars home in the points, one on the podium – and would have had two there apart from Fisi's problem. Giancarlo drove a great race, and we have to say sorry to him for the problem with his car that cost him a podium. Fernando didn't make any mistakes, and deserved his second place in front of the Spanish crowd. We also congratulate McLaren on an impressive performance this afternoon."

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Toyota ( Jarno Trulli - 3rd, Ralf Schumacher - 4th )

Tsutomu Tomita - Team Principal "We're very happy to have made the podium successfully yet again, so I would like to congratulate both drivers for their excellent performances today. Either of them could have come away with the podium, but both earned a lot of points for Toyota. So it was a good race and a good day for the team all round. The reliability of the engine, chassis and transmission was perfect for both cars. So congratulations are due to the aerodynamics department and the manufacturing department, particularly composites, at TMG. It was an almost trouble-free race. We had a bit of a moment at Jarno's first pitstop when some fuel caught fire, but there was no damage to the car. We had been concerned about tyre wear before the race but it was effectively no issue at all. A good day, then, but we still finished behind two of our competitors so we still have a long way to go. Now we have to keep pushing."

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Williams BMW ( Nick Heidfeld - 9th, Mark Webber - 10th )

Sam Michael (Technical Director WilliamsF1): It is obviously both a disappointing result and day overall. We had a poor start and we spent the whole race in traffic. Clearly we have to improve this for the future. That said, the car's competitiveness was not as bad as it might have appeared due to the traffic but it's certainly not where we expected to be. We had no mechanical problems at all.

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Red Bull ( David Coulthard - 8th, Vitantonio Liuzzi - Retired )

Christian Horner, Sporting Director “David drove a very good race today, he stuck with it all the way through and he managed to extract another point. With five races and five point scoring finishes he maximised the cars potential, despite a heavy look up, which cause him a big vibration from early on in the race. We can see again, our potential is there as we were competitive with our rivals in lap time in the second half of the race although, we need to make further step in qualifying. Tonio, obviously, had a disappointing race. The car got away from him in corner 7 and unfortunately eliminating him from the race. He is testing next week and I’m sure he’ll be in better shape for Monaco.”

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Ferrari ( Rubens Barrichello - 9th, Michael Schumacher - Retired )

Jean Todt: “We knew this would be a difficult race, but it turned out to be tougher than expected. In the middle stint of the race, it seemed we might be able to produce a repeat of our Imola performance, with Michael on a great climb up the order, thanks to a strategy of going for a longer first stint than his rivals. Unfortunately, on lap 44, a loss of pressure in the left rear tyre meant Michael had to pit to change it. A similar problem, this time to the left front, occurred on lap 46 and Michael retired at this point. All our chances now rested with Rubens, who despite his best efforts and a one-stop strategy, finished just outside the points, having started from the penultimate row. We have to accept that in this first part of the season, our opponents are stronger than us. But we will not get discouraged and we will absolutely not give up. We will tackle the rest of the championship with the same will and determination that has characterised our approach for so many years.”

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Sauber ( Felipe Massa - Retired, Classified 11th, Jacques Villeneuve - Retired )

Peter Sauber (Team Principal): "After our strong showing in Imola we are obviously disappointed as we were expecting more here. But we look forward to the next race."

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Jordan ( Narain Karthikeyan - 12th, Tiago Monteiro - 13th )

Trevor Carlin, Sporting Director
“It was really a tough race for both our drivers. We are glad to have finished again, as we were quite a long way off the pace. We were a bit disappointed about that but we knew from the start that this was going to be one of the hardest circuits for us. Now we have to look forward to the next race in Monaco.”

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Minardi ( Christijan Albers - Retired, Patrick Friesacher - Retired )

Paul Stoddart, Team Principal, Minardi Cosworth

“Motor racing is often about highs and lows, and today was definitely a low. All in all, it has not been a good weekend for the Minardi team in Spain, so let’s hope Monaco, in two weeks, will be better.”

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Bridgestone

Hisao Suganuma – Technical Manager – Bridgestone Motorsport “Today’s result was certainly disappointing. Neither Minardi nor Jordan experienced tyre problems this weekend and we were hopeful that both Ferrari drivers could finish well today. Unfortunately Michael Schumacher suffered a loss of balance and then a loss of air in his left rear tyre in the latter stages of the race and after pitting to change the tyre, he then had a loss of air in his front left tyre. Safety is of course our first priority and we have already started a thorough investigation into the cause of this loss of air. What we can say, however, is that the wear on Michael’s rear tyres was within acceptable boundaries.”

Full Bridgestone Race Report  Back to Top

Michelin

Pierre Dupasquier, Michelin motorsport director
“This was a fascinating event from a technical perspective. When we selected compounds for the Circuit de Catalunya, the weather forecasts suggested that conditions would be cloudy and quite cool but it has been a beautiful, sunny day. This placed extra demands on tyres that would have had to cope with significant loads even in ordinary circumstances, but now the chequered flag has dropped we can see that our hard work during the pre-race build-up has paid off. That is a tribute to the whole Michelin team – both here and at Clermont-Ferrand.”
“There were times during the race when we saw a little bit of blistering, but that was to be expected given the hot conditions and the situation stabilised very quickly. At the end of the race, it was gratifying to see Giancarlo Fisichella set fastest lap on a set of tyres that had covered the best part of 400km over two days. That underlined the excellent long-term performance Michelin is able to offer its partners.”

Full Michelin Race Report  Back to Top

BAR Honda ( Jenson Button, Takuma Sato )

BAR Honda F1 team banned from event ... more

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