The Italian qualified fifth fastest and ran a strong fifth in the early part of
the race. He was then overhauled by Jenson Button’s BAR Honda at the final
round of pit stops.
Ralf Schumacher, meanwhile, found his race compromised by a first lap incident
that put debris on the circuit in the middle of Turn 1 and saw his Toyota TF105
drop to the tail of the field. He finished the race in 12th place, just half a
second behind Jacques Villeneuve.
“It was a straightforward race for me,” Trulli explained. “I
was pleased with the car’s pace throughout, although I knew I was not going
to be able to fight with the McLarens and Renaults. We had seen that the BAR pace
was quick before their incidents in qualifying and I was hoping that I would be
able to beat Button through starting ahead of him. It was very close and I was
unfortunate to just lose out at the second stops because he ran a couple of laps
further than me. Overall I’m happy to score three more points at what has
been an interesting weekend for Formula 1 at another impressive new venue.”
For Schumacher, the Turkish Grand Prix brought nothing but frustration.
“Sometimes motor racing is like that and there is nothing you can do,”
Ralf. “Felipe Massa and a Williams almost collided into Turn 1. Felipe’s
front wing came off and in the confusion I was pushed wide and off the track by
a Williams. By the time I got back onto the circuit and up to speed I was right
at the back and facing an uphill struggle. I kept pushing but I was unable to
extend my consecutive run of point-scoring to five races.”
Kimi Raikkonen took his fifth win of the season for Team McLaren Mercedes,
ahead of championship leader Fernando Alonso’s Mild Seven Renault. Juan
Pablo Montoya was in a secure second place with just three laps to go before being
knocked into a spin after a tangle with Portuguese driver Tiago Monteiro’s
Jordan. The Colombian recovered to finish third, ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella
in the second Renault. Behind Button and Trulli, the Red Bull Racing entries of
David Coulthard and Christian Klien completed the scorers.
Panasonic Toyota Racing’c chief race engineer Dieter Gass said: “It
is always an interesting technical exercise to come to a new circuit and it’s
good to come away with three points. Jarno was strong in both qualifying and the
race, with consistent pace, but you cannot legislate for the type of thing that
happened to Ralf this afternoon.”
In the constructors’ championship the team closed the gap on reigning
champions Ferrari to just 15 points with five events remaining, with the next
round at Monza on September 4.
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