San Marino F1 GP - Fantastic duel between Schumacher and Alonso

Ralf Schumacher, Panasonic Toyota F1. Finished eighth but penalised 25 seconds due to pit stop infringement to drop to eleventh. These comments made before knowledge of penalty: "To finish with both cars in the points here is a good result at this circuit which was always going to be a difficult one for us. I had no real problems other than the odd balance issue on one set of tyres and the guys did a great job for me – especially at the second pitstop. The eighth place arrived because we had such a perfect pitstop and we were able to catch the Williams in the pits. So a big thanks to all the guys and it's great that we can stay in second place in the constructors' championship."

Felipe Massa, Sauber Petronas, twelfth: "I was still in neutral trying to get a gear when the race began so I lost chances to overtake on the first lap. As you can see with Michael, it was almost impossible to overtake here, and many times I was behind Coulthard. When I got really close I got brake fade, which is why I touched his rear wheel one lap and lost my wing. I had to pit early as a result and as we had to refuel then the car was heavier than it should have been. But even so it was very good whenever I had clear laps. I knew that it would be after our performance in qualifying, and if I had been able to start from eighth on the grid I think it would have been possible to fight for a very good position not far from the podium."

David Coulthard, Red Bull F1, 12th place: “At the start I was a bit slow away from the grid. I was running around ok but then had a bit of a bump with Massa, which broke part of the floor. We went backwards from there and never really came back. The race was pretty lonely actually, just going around in circles. The car didn’t have great race pace - we knew that from yesterday - so I was expecting to struggle a bit. But I still thought I’d have a better balance than I did. There was a lot of oversteer.”

Narain Karthikeyan, Jordan F1, 13th: “This is the best race for me so far pace-wise. I have made a decent start and I was able to keep close to the cars in front. I had a good first pit stop but I made a small mistake in the second one, which unfortunately cost me some time, and then I was on my own for the rest of the race. However it was a positive race for us as we were able to keep up with the Red Bull cars which is quite encouraging for the team.”

Tiago Monteiro, Jordan F1, 14th: “Four races and four finishes for me so I am quite pleased. It was quite a difficult race as I suffered from a puncture near the end of the race. Finishing the race was positive for us but what is even better is that we were able to reduce the gap with the cars in front. Now when the cars are passing us they do not just disappear as they used to do it in the first three races but now we can follow them for a while. This is definitely an improvement for the team.”

Trevor Carlin, Sporting Director, Jordan F1: “We had quite a good race, where we showed a very good pace with Tiago and especially Narain hanging on to the Red Bull cars and Felipe Massa. Narain made a small mistake in the pit stop, which unfortunately did not allow us to take advantage of our speed. However, we are very pleased and encouraged the pace we had during the race.”

Kimi Raikkonen, McLaren Mercedes, Qualified on Pole, mechanical failure while leading comfortably: "Unfortunately my race was cut short as a result of a failure in the left driveshaft. Obviously I am disappointed as I had a great start and was really building on my lead. At least we know that the car has the pace in both qualifying as well as the race, and with some improvements due for Spain in two weeks I am looking forward to a good race there."

Rubens Barrichello , Ferrari driver, DNF: “My car had an electrical problem, but at the moment we don’t know the cause. It’s a great shame as I knew my car would be very quick, particularly on used tyres and we have made a huge improvement since the last race, but I never got to the point in the race when my tyres would have been at their best. We still have to look at our reliability as it has not been so good recently. On the positive side, the F2005 is very good and was really quick even with a lot of fuel on board.”

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