F1 - Canadian GP: Raikkonen & McLaren again

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F1 - Canadian GP: Raikkonen & McLaren again

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Mario Theissen, BMW Motorsport Director: “It was more than a turbulent race. If you start from positions 13 and 14 and get rewarded with four points, under normal circumstances one would be happy. But today there was more within our reach. The ambient temperature has been significantly higher today than what we had expected, which caused the engines to run over their temperature limits. In Nick's case, continuously driving in a slipstream hampered the air flow to cool the engine which created an additional problem. This finally caused the engine failure. During the last few laps, when Mark wasn't affected by traffic, we decided to reduce the load on his engine.”

Ralf Schumacher, Panasonic Toyota Racing, 6th: "I'm glad to be leaving here with three points under my belt. I gave my best considering everything that happened this weekend. I didn't get well off the line today and we need to check the reason for that. Unfortunately the lost places meant that I was always going to struggle in the race with the strategy we had. But I battled hard and gained a place early on. Then it was just about staying in the race and seeing what could happen. I was unlucky with the safety car when Montoya pitted, but our instructions from race control were to stay in the position I was. The good news is that Jarno was very near to getting a podium, and it shows that we can drive good races when everything goes well."

Tsutomu Tomita, Team Principal, Panasonic Toyota Racing: "Both drivers put in fantastic efforts today, but as a team we were very unfortunate. Jarno made a great start, he drove well all afternoon and he was heading for the podium until he suffered a brake failure. We had lost all the telemetry on his car shortly after half-distance so we couldn't monitor what was happening on the car. He reported back no problems so we'll have to see what happened when we get the car back. Ralf had a bad start and lost positions so it was difficult to move forward with his strategy. He did a very good race, and did well to make up some places in the first laps. During the safety car period he ended up the lead car when Montoya pitted on the instructions from race control. From a lap back all he could do was stay in 6th for three valuable points. The good thing is that Toyota again showed its strong performance to the world and we will continue to challenge next week at Indianapolis."

David Coulthard, Red Bull Racing, seventh: “That was a difficult race. I was struggling with quite a lot of oversteer in the car, which made it tricky to drive, especially in the early stages of the race. At various points, we had a very good pace, but now it’s about trying to work with the car to get a handle on the consistency. But, we’ve come away from this event with three points and that’s got to be good.”

Christian Klien, Red Bull Racing, eighth: “That was one of the toughest races I have ever done! The start was not so good, as I didn’t make up any positions, but then I overtook Albers on the second corner, which meant I stood more of a chance of maintaining the same speed as the drivers in front. The car was quite difficult to drive, the rear started to lose grip and I had some understeer. I was quite far behind the leaders at one stage and, as the front runners overtook me, I had a lot of blue flags to contend with and lost some time. After that, I had quite a lot of clear laps and was really able to push. I’m pleased to finish the event with no mistakes and we gained a point, which is very good.”

Christian Horner, Sporting Director, Red Bull Racing: “Persistence paid off at the end of the day and both drivers kept their noses clean, reacted to situations well, looked after their cars’ brakes and we picked up three points. So, in terms of a team result, it was as much as we could have hoped for today. We knew we didn’t quite have the pace here, but we maximised our chances, the tyres lasted well and came away with a solid result.”

Gunther Steiner, Technical Director, Red Bull Racing: “Considering our starting position on the grid, we did a good job today and it’s great to see both drivers finish in the points. The car ran faultlessly, with no technical problems and I have to thank the team. They did a fantastic job and today’s result was very much down to them.”

Dave Prigg, Cosworth: “A fantastic double points finish for David and Christian, which continues Red Bull Racing Cosworth’s record of scoring points in all but one GP this year. This finish also provides Cosworth with the enviable position of being the only engine manufacturer to supply a team with an uninterrupted sequence of engines from the start of the season. An unmatched level of reliability from the TJ2005 10 series engine, at its final race. Red Bull Racing will enjoy a significant performance step with the introduction of the TJ2005 12 series engine next week at Indy."

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