Japanese GP - FerrariIt was an incident filled race for
Michael Schumacher and
Rubens Barrichello. Schumacher battled hard all day with first
Fernando Alonso and then
Kimi Raikkonen is some very good clean fights for position. As it was, the F2005 lacked the straight line
speed to hold of the charging youngsters and Schumacher would finish the Japanese Grand Prix in seventh position.
With
Juan Pablo Montoya crashing out of the race, Schumacher takes third position in the Championship from the Colombian with one race remaining.
Rubens Barrichello found himself sailing into the gravel trap at the first turn on the first lap as he battled with Jacques
Jacques Villeneuve and was unfortunate to clip Takuma Sato who had also run wide. The slight contact forced Barrichello to the pits for a new left rear Bridgestone and he would battle on to finish in 12th position.
The result moves Ferrari to 100 points this year and means that rivals Toyota can no longer catch the Italian team for third position in the constructors' championship with one race remaining. The points gained were dedicated to Ferrari engineer Ivan Petterlini who lost his life in a road accident last Sunday.
Michael Schumacher“The best thing to come out of today is that we have secured third place in this year’s Constructors’ championship. Considering the performance of our package this season and the tough time we have had, this is not such a bad result. Especially, when you consider that, in the ten years I have been with Ferrari, this will have been our worst season. As for the race, I was disappointed that, unlike in Brazil, I was unable to keep pace with the Renaults. Sure, it is fun to have a good fight on the track, but it would have been better if I had been more competitive. At my second stop, we had to make some adjustments to the car, which cost us time and lost me a place. All in all, going to Shanghai two points ahead of Montoya is nice but unexpected.”
Rubens Barrichello“This was a tough race for me, ruined by what happened on the opening lap. I was trying really hard to overtake
Jacques Villeneuve around the outside and everything was going okay. I could not close the door too much on Jacques. I had Sato in my sight so I could see him going off the track. With him in front of me as he went off the track, I found myself with no downforce and also ended up in the gravel. Then I had to come in as my left rear tyre was punctured. With the Safety Car on track, we changed strategy, going for a single refuelling stop, but I was too far back and there was not much I could do.”
Ross Brawn
“Rubens got caught up in the mess at the beginning, which made his race very difficult from then on. Michael made a great start and I think we had a very good strategy today. But the performance of the package just faded in the middle of the race and became difficult to deal with. This then put us in a defensive position from about lap 20 onwards, which meant we had to try and protect our position. At the second pit stop, we had to make some adjustments to the car which meant we lost a place to Coulthard. We were not as fast as the front runners, but nevertheless we did a good job today, within the limits of our performance at the moment.”
Jean Todt
“This result lived up to our admittedly un-ambitious expectations. Michael had to dig deep into his reserves of talent to get the Ferrari-Bridgestone package home in seventh place. Rubens’ chance of finishing in the points was compromised by the accident at the first corner. The subsequent Safety Car period offered the possibility of regaining some ground, but nothing much came out of it. Today’s result confirms us in third place in the Constructors’ championship behind the two teams which, running on the rival tyre to Bridgestone, have dominated the season."
"Objectively, this was the best we could do. Two points is not much, but all the same, we dedicate them to one of our team, Ivan Petterlini, who tragically died last Sunday. These last few days, all of us have been thinking of him. In a few days, we will be back on track in Shanghai for the final race of the year. The only pleasure we can derive from that is that this negative season is coming to an end. Then, along with Bridgestone, we will be able to turn our full attention to preparing for 2006.”
E.A. Source Ferrari
