13.06.2004 “I was not so happy at the beginning of the race, as there were a lot of incidents on the track & I wrecked my first set of tyres avoiding several of them", Minardi race report from Montreal
Like a number of teams in today’s Canadian Grand
Prix, Wilux Minardi Cosworth experienced an action-packed race in
front of a sell-out crowd of 112,000 enthusiastic Formula One fans.
Gianmaria Bruni started the event from the pit lane after switching from the
Faenza squad’s spare chassis, which he drove in Saturday’s qualifying session,
back to his race car. The latter had been repaired after a fuel pressure problem
occurred in pre-qualifying. Successfully avoiding a first-corner accident as he
exited the pits, Bruni then drove a strong race. Unfortunately, a gearbox
problem after the first of his two scheduled pit stops led to the young Roman’s
retirement on lap 31.
Team mate, Zsolt Baumgartner, was also forced to take evasive action on several
occasions in the opening laps of the race to avoid incidents taking place near
him, and survived a spin in his second stint caused by a collision with another
competitor. He pressed on, however, to take the chequered flag in a creditable
14th place.
Zolt Baumgartner
“I was not so happy at the
beginning of the race, as there were a lot of incidents on the track and, as a
result, I wrecked my first set of tyres avoiding several of them. After my
first pit stop, and on new tyres, the car just got better and better.
"Unfortunately, Klien misjudged an overtaking manoeuvre while I was in my second
stint and hit the right front tyre of my car with his left rear, which caused me
to spin. There was a lot of traffic around, and I lost time before I could
safely rejoin the race. Despite all that, though, I am pleased to have finished
another race and to have set some consistent lap times.”
GIANMARIA BRUNI
“It was a good race to begin with,
and the car was quick in the first two stints. There was a problem at the first
pit stop, which lost me some time, but once I was back out on the track again, I
was able to re-pass Zsolt and pull away. Unfortunately, a problem developed
with the gearbox, and there was no choice but to retire.
"It’s bad luck, because
the car had been handling really well up to that point. I want to say a special
thank you to the guys, who did a great job this weekend, and we’ll see what we
can do at Indianapolis next weekend.”
PAUL STODDART, Team Principal
“The team was pleased to get Zsolt’s car to the finish today, but saddened by the curtailment of Gimmi’s race as the result of a gearbox problem. All in all, though, the performance was about the best that could be expected today.”
Chassis allocation: Bruni (No 20) PS04B/02, Baumgartner (No 21) PS04B/01, Spare car (Baumgartner) PS04B/03
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