| Panasonic Toyota Racing just missed out on a point in the San Marino Grand
Prix when Ralf Schumacher finished the race in ninth place, 5s behind Giancarlo
Fisichella’s Renault.
The race started badly for the team when Jarno Trulli, driving in his home
race, was forced to retire after just five laps with a steering problem.
“My run of bad luck continued today and we will have to analyse carefully
what exactly happened. It was a shame because the car showed good pace here and
when things finally start to go my way I am expecting strong performance levels
and a good string of results,” said Trulli.
Team mate Schumacher adopted a three-stop strategy for the 62-lap race, pitting
on laps 16, 32 and 46. Lucky Strike Honda’s Jenson Button was the only other
driver to opt for three stops and Ralf admitted that the gamble didn’t quite
work out.
“We didn’t have quite enough pace to make it work,” he said,
“but part of that was down to the Safety Car period in the first stint.
To make a three-stop race work you have to be able to do a strong first stint
and although the Safety Car period was not a lengthy one, it still cost us.”
The race saw Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro’s Michael Schumacher score an
85th career F1 victory when he won a close battle with Mild Seven Renault’s
reigning world champion, Fernando Alonso. Juan Pablo Montoya finished third for
Team McLaren Mercedes, ahead of Felipe Massa in the second Ferrari and his own
team mate, Kimi Raikkonen. Mark Webber was sixth for the Williams F1 Team, ahead
of Button and Giancarlo Fisichella’s Renault.
Chief race engineer Dieter Gass said in summary: “Jarno had a mechanical
problem with the steering column and Ralf’s three-stop strategy was compromised
by the early Safety Car. A three-stop race is not so much of a risk here because
of the short pit lane but you can never legislate for a Safety Car. We had a little
bit of inconsistency with grip but we showed a strong performance level during
the weekend and Ralf actually set the fifth quickest lap of the race.”
Four races into the new season Schumacher lies eighth in the drivers’
championship with 7 points, while Trulli is still looking for his first point
and hoping to break his 2006 duck in the next race at the Nürburgring, effectively
a home event for the Cologne-based team.
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