Wednesday, September 17, 2008

DIFFICULT DAY FOR GLOCK AND CO

DIFFICULT DAY FOR GLOCK AND CO

Glock - tough day.

Toyota, Williams, Honda and Force India all failed to bag points in Sunday's Italian GP.

Toyota
Timo Glock: Overall it was just quite a difficult day for us. I made a good start but I lost a couple of seconds soon afterwards when I spun as I tried to overtake Alonso. Early on it was very hard to see through all the spray when the track was at its wettest. It was hard to attack but I still managed to pull off some moves. Then the extra stop cost us the chance to go for points. It's obviously a shame to finish where we did but we were unlucky and our pace shows we can score again in the coming races."

Jarno Trulli: In the wet conditions early on I was going well on the heavy wet tyres but we had no luck with the strategy because the timings just didn't work out for us today. When I came in for my pit stop it was still four or five laps too soon for standard wet tyres. That meant we had to pit again shortly afterwards and we lost everything. Later on I was not as competitive because I was sliding around. So it was not our day today. Still, we were expecting this to be a difficult race but the next few races might be better for us. So I remain optimistic because we still have a lot of points to score and the season has been good so far."

Williams
Kazuki Nakajima: It was a difficult race today with many close decisions to take. Starting from the pitlane to allow me to make some aero changes was not penalising as we started behind the safety car and it was a very good decision from the team. In the early stages of the race, it was very difficult with the poor visibility and also I struggled with the braking, so the pace just wasn't there to begin with, but we changed from extreme wets to wets at just the right time and from then on my pace was much better."

Nico Rosberg: The outcome today was really disappointing as we were in a great position with potentially the best strategy, but again I finished towards the back of the field. In the first stint I thought I should be able to maintain a good pace, but I really struggled with tyre degradation and I lost time to those in front of me. But what was really decisive today was the tyre decision for my stop, which really destroyed the possibility of a good finish in the points. Everyone else was staying on full wets, so we thought we were in a good position to do the same and to keep risk to a minimum. In any case, at that point there wasn't a dry line to see, but ultimately it proved to be the wrong choice."

Honda
Jenson Button: We decided to start the race from the pit lane today as it may have given us an advantage with tyre choice, however when the race started behind the safety car it just meant that my tyres and brakes were very cold. The first couple of laps were quite difficult with the amount of spray and I lost a place which was disappointing. Then I got stuck behind Coulthard in the middle of the race when my lap times were good, which compromised my race quite badly. The last stint was a lot of fun though as we left the very worn wet tyres on and I had a couple of purple middle sectors. But at the end of the day it was disappointing to come home in 15th position and we have not had a good weekend here."

Rubens Barrichello: We made the decision on lap 16 to pit for the wet tyres as I felt the track was starting to dry out and it could give us an advantage. Although it was a positive decision as our lap times came down from there and I was gaining time on the cars ahead of me, it did interrupt our planned one-stop strategy. The wet tyres worked well in the middle stint but when I came up to my second stop with ten laps to go, the team asked if it was dry enough for slicks. It was not quite dry enough however they asked me to give it a go as we had nothing to lose. I tried my best but it was definitely too wet. We could have finished higher up by sticking to the wets but it was worth trying something different. It's been a tough weekend all round."

Force India
Adrian Sutil: For sure it was not the best race for us. At the start I just had no grip on the extreme wets and I couldn't push. The second set of extremes was better than the first, but by then it was drying out so after 10 laps I lost even more grip and had some vibrations in the front. I came into the pits to change and we went over to the dry tyres. It was a little too early but we had to try it. It was pretty much a race to forget."

Giancarlo Fisichella: I'm disappointed that after the good qualifying we couldn't convert this into a better result in the race. The conditions at the start were very wet but I had a good battle with Raikkonen and Hamilton. Coulthard then overtook me in the first chicane and in the corner he was slow so I touched him. Unfortunately the tap damaged the front nose and it went under the car. On the back straight I couldn't control the car and went off into the gravel."



  • COULTHARD RUES TYRE DECISION
  • REACTION: FERRARI, RENAULT, TOYOTA, WILLIAMS
  • REACTION: RENAULT/TOYOTA/FORCE INDIA
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