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2005 BRITISH F1 GRAND PRIX

2005 F1 GP: R10 of 19, 2005 British GP, July 10, Silverstone

CIRCUIT:

• Silverstone , UK
• first British GP 1950
• 5.057 km ; fast circuit ; windy ; 17 turns
• lap record: 1min 22.515sec D Hill, Williams
• 61 lap race; total distance 191.6 miles / 308.5 km ; 5.057 km per lap
• 2004 winner: Michael Schumacher , Ferrari
• 2003 winner: Barrichello, Ferrari
• 2002 winner: M Schumacher, Ferrari
• 2001 winner: Hakkinen/McLaren Mercedes
• 2000 winner: Coulthard/McLaren Mercedes
• 1999 winner: Coulthard/McLaren Mercedes
• LAST YEAR RESULT
  1 Michael Schumacher , GER, Ferrari , 60 laps
  2 Kimi Raikkonen , FIN, McLaren +2.1s
  3 Rubens Barrichello , BRA, Ferrari +3.1s
  4 Jenson Button , BAR +10.6
  5 Juan Montoya, Williams +12.1
  6 Giancarlo Fisichella, Sauber +12.8
• 2004 pole: Kimi Raikkonen , McLaren 1m 18.233

2005 RACE RESULT

• 1 Juan Pablo Montoya (Col) McLaren, 60 laps
• 2 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault
• 3 K Raikkonen (McLaren)
• 4 G Fisichella (Renault)
• 5 J Button (BAR)
• 6 M Schumacher (Ferrari)
  "We have been moving backwards in the last few races not forwards. We have to admit we are not good enough."
• 7 R Barrichello (Ferrari)
• 8 R Schumacher (Toyota)
• 9 Jarno Trulli
• 10 Felipe Massa
• 11 Mark Webber
• 12 Nick Heidfeld
• 13 David Coulthard
• 14 Jacques Villeneuve
• 15 Klien 16 Sato 17 Monteiro 18 Albers 19 Friesacher DNF: Karthikeyan

McLAREN RACE REPORT

• Juan Pablo Montoya: "It's a great feeling winning my first Grand Prix for Team McLaren Mercedes. My start was perfect, and I managed to get by Fernando in a wheel-to-wheel dice after the second corner. I was really going for it and knew that he had more to lose than me -- I just wanted to win the race. It was then all about staying ahead and our strategy combined with two excellent pit stops really helped me to manage that."
• "The team did a great job particularly calling me in one lap early for my first pitstop to avoid traffic, which was the right decision and meant I gained an advantage to Fernando. However, it was not an easy race as Fernando put me under a lot of pressure until the very end. I'm relieved to have won my first race of the year especially as it was the home Grand Prix of McLaren and a lot of the people from the Technology Centre and Mercedes-Benz at Brixworth were here cheering."
• Kimi Raikkonen: "I think I did the best I could today, and we can leave Silverstone with two podium finishes. If I had not had the problems yesterday and lost 10 grid positions, the result would have been different, but that is motor racing. However we lost only two points in the Championship battle and hopefully we can challenge for victory at the remaining races."
• "During the race I lost a lot of time behind other cars. It's so difficult to get close in the fast corners as you just lose all grip. When I got past Michael and Trulli in the pitstops it was too late and the gap to the front was too big. There is no doubt that we have the speed as I was able to set the fastest time of the race on the last lap, so I look forward to Hockenheim where hopefully we should have an 'uneventful'
• Ron Dennis (CEO): "I think today's results speak for themselves. An outstanding performance from Juan Pablo who worked hard to generate sufficient gap to Alonso prior to his final stop to ensure his race victory, which of course he achieved."
• "Kimi's third place reflects his poor starting position resulting from a penalty he suffered following an engine change on Saturday. Nevertheless he set fastest lap and with 80 points available mathematically both drivers still have the opportunity to challenge for the Championship."

RENAULT RACE REPORT

• Fernando Alonso: 2nd position: "It is a nice surprise to be on the podium at one of our most difficult circuits, and to have extended my lead over Kimi in the championship. It was also encouraging because we started from pole, which shows that the car is competitive, and I think we are looking strong for the rest of the season too."
• "In terms of the race, I lost the lead at the start and after that, followed Montoya until the stops. The team gave me a heavy fuel load so we could try and overtake during the final stops, but then I got stuck in traffic -- I lost a lot of time behind Trulli but it wasn't his fault because they were not showing any blue flags."
• "That meant I was still behind when I came out after my last stop. It is a bit frustrating to lose a win because of that, but this is still a great result for us."
• Giancarlo Fisichella: 4th position "Once again, it is a bit of a disappointing result for me, because I should have been on the podium today if it wasn't for the problem in my second pit-stop. But even so, from P6, it was a very strong race for me, the strategy the team worked out was excellent and I was in the fight at the front of the race with a good race pace."
• "When we came here this weekend, we knew that McLaren would be quicker than us but honestly, it was very close indeed. We have come out OK after all."
• Flavio Briatore, Managing Director: "To leave Silverstone having seen Fernando extend his lead over Raikkonen by two points is a fantastic result for us. The team put in an excellent performance this weekend, and we never thought that the car would be so competitive here." "In my opinion, Fernando missed the win because the blue flags were not being shown enough to the backmarkers, but this happens sometimes. McLaren were very competitive today, Renault was too, and I think we put on a good show."

BAR RACE REPORT

• Jenson Button: "I'm obviously not going to be happy with a result like this at my home race but it was evident that we can't expect any more from the car at the moment. We came here hoping that we would benefit from our improvements but they obviously didn't go far enough and we are still some way behind."
• "The top two teams are just in a different league from the rest of the field at the moment and watching the cars in front and behind me was just staggering with the amount of grip they had in the high-speed corners."
• "We are strong compared to the rest of the teams. I finished over half a minute ahead of Michael in sixth. Still we got some more points for the team and put on a good race for the British fans here this afternoon. I'm just sorry that I couldn't get the podium that we all wanted."

FERRARI RACE REPORT

• Michael Schumacher: "Of course, I cannot be happy to have finished sixth, especially looking at my lap times in the race. Clearly, we are simply not fast enough at the moment. If I had not been delayed by Trulli, I might have been able to fight with Button, but I am not keen on using the word "if" as an excuse."
• "If you compare our performance from the two North American races to these last two, we appear to be going backwards instead of forwards. We are not up to the level of our competitors. I am still looking forward to my home race in Hockenheim, but I wish I could promise the fans there a bit more than this."
• Jean Todt: "I said yesterday that we could expect a difficult race and that getting both our cars home in the points was our only realistic target. Unfortunately, that is how things turned out. We are not capable of matching the pace of the leaders and the final result is a reasonably accurate reflection of the current pecking order here at Silverstone today. The only satisfying point to take away from here is the level of reliability we demonstrated this afternoon."

QUALIFYING & RACE PREVIEW - 2005 BRITISH GP

GRID

Raikkonen qualified 2nd but he will lose 10 places due to engine change penalty. Michael Schumacher will start 9th.

• 1. Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault 1:19.905
  "It was a good lap today, and there was a really nice balance on the car. It is quite unexpected for me to be on the pole, to be honest, but the team did a great job overnight to improve the car, and it felt quick straight away this morning. That meant I went into qualifying with a good level of confidence, and I could really attack on the timed lap. Looking to tomorrow, I think we will see more similar strategies than in Magny-Cours, which will make it hard for people behind to make up positions, but it is still a long race here and anything can happen. It is hard for Kimi to suffer another penalty, but from our side, it doesn't change anything in the approach: we have done our maximum so far this weekend and got pole; we will do exactly the same tomorrow."
• * Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) McLaren 1:19.932 *will lose 10 places due to engine change*
  "It's frustrating having to change engines and incur the 10 place penalty again, but we showed in France last weekend what is possible. There is nothing I can do but get on with things, push as hard as possible and hope our strategists got things right. The lap was OK, but I ran a bit wide in one of the quick corners. Also, as the engine failure happened early in the second session, I was unable to run with new tyres then which made things more challenging during my flying lap. In racing anything can happen and we will do our best and hope for an exciting Grand Prix tomorrow."
• 2. Jenson Button (GB) BAR 1:20.207
  "It's a great feeling to be at the front and be able to fight with the Renaults and McLarens. We didn't quite expect it - we've had a tough time this year. But I think we can do some pretty good things from there, and it can only get better from here."
• 3. Juan Pablo Montoya (Col) McLaren 1:20.382
  "It was an OK lap time. I could have been one or two tenths quicker, but was a bit careful coming into the first corner because of the wind and all of a sudden lost a lot of grip when I turned in at Becketts. However the rest of the lap was pretty good and I pushed like crazy. Qualifying is important here at Silverstone and whilst it's a disadvantage to be out early, I still managed to get on the second row and I hope it will be a strong race for me."
• 4. Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota 1:20.459
  "I'm happy because that was a good lap from me. I suffered a bit with understeer, which maybe cost me a few tenths. But the balance was still good and I could push hard. It's a shame we're not even further forward, but the second row is a good space to start and it means we can look forward to a positive day tomorrow. We've had a good weekend all round and we did some effective work on our race set-up this morning. So I'm confident that we should have fewer problems tomorrow in the race than we saw last week at Magny-Cours and we can bring home a better result."
• 5. Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Ferrari 1:20.906
• 6. Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Renault 1:21.010
• 7. Takuma Sato (Jap) BAR 1:21.114
• 8. Ralf Schumacher (Ger) Toyota 1:21.191
• 9. Michael Schumacher (Ger) Ferrari 1:21.275
• 10. Jacques Villeneuve (Can) Sauber 1:21.352
• 11 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) McLaren
  12. Mark Webber (Aus) Williams 1:21.997
  13. David Coulthard (GB) Red Bull 1:22.108
  14. Nick Heidfeld (Ger) Williams 1:22.117
  15. Christian Klien (Aut) Red Bull 1:22.207
  16. Felipe Massa (Bra) Sauber 1:22.495
  17. Narain Karthikeyan (Ind) Jordan 1:23.583
  18. Christijan Albers (Net) Minardi 1:24.576
  19. Patrick Friesacher (Aut) Minardi 1:25.566
  20. Tiago Monteiro (Por) Jordan

RENAULT QUALIFYING REPORT

• Fernando on pole and Fisico seventh - but sixth on the grid after Raikkonen suffers ten place penalty.
• Fernando Alonso took his fourth pole position of the year this afternoon in qualifying for the British Grand Prix. Running last in the hour-long session after his victory in France, the Spaniard put together a mistake- free, aggressive lap to claim top spot by several hundredths of a second from championship rival Kimi Raikkonen.
• Team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella qualified seventh fastest, his lap compromised by poor grip levels and some small errors. Nevertheless, the Italian will start from the third row tomorrow after benefiting from the ten position penalty Raikkonen will serve following an engine change this morning.
• Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering: "We saw another fantastic qualifying effort from Fernando this afternoon to claim his fourth pole position of the season. We should not forget though that Giancarlo put in a good effort considering the strategy he is running. Of course, we have benefited from Kimi's bad luck this morning but I am sure that like in Magny-Cours, we will soon see him in the hunt at the front of the field in race conditions."
• Denis Chevrier, Head of Engine Operations: "Our running this morning suggested to us that our level of performance was competitive with our rivals, and that has apparently been confirmed this afternoon -- although we have the usual unknown of the fuel loads different cars are running, that still has to be played out. However, we have gone about our race preparations in our normal, serious fashion and it is fantastic to see one car starting from the best possible position, and the other very much in the hunt for the podium."
• "Of course, the weather remains an unknown factor, as the temperatures have stayed stubbornly low all weekend, but we expect tomorrow to be much hotter, which will certainly present the teams with some performance and reliability challenges. Overall, though, it has been a good afternoon -- and it is pleasing to take a first pole position with our new C specification engine."

McLAREN QUALIFYING REPORT

• Ron Dennis: "The grid positions merely reflect our race strategy which, of course, in the end is what determines the outcome of the race. Both Kimi and Juan Pablo did exceptionally good jobs which, as in France, will only become apparent as the race unfolds."
• Norbert Haug: "A very good lap of Kimi's. After we had to change his engine following the oil pump drive failure Kimi made the best out of the situation qualifying with the second best time, 27 thousands of a second behind Fernando Alonso's pole time. Juan Pablo also did a good job being fourth fastest after having to go out for his qualifying lap as the fifth car today when the track conditions were by far not at their best."
• "Sorry for Kimi and his team, the mechanics had to work extremely hard to make his qualifying lap possible. I hope they will get their reward tomorrow. Of course, changing the engine on two consecutive weekends is not what we had planned. I'm sure that everybody at Mercedes-Ilmor will work extremely hard and precise to avoid such failures in the future."

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