In a
Canadian Grand Prix full of
incident and mechanical carnage,
the
Minardi F1 Team
recorded its best result of the
2005 season,
Christijan Albers
taking the chequered flag in
11th position and recording some
competitive lap times in the
process. Team mate,
Patrick Friesacher,
also ran strongly from the
start, but his car suffered a
loss of hydraulic pressure soon
after the second of his
scheduled pit stops, and he was
forced to retire on lap 39. Like
a number of drivers, Albers took
advantage of the Safety Car
deployment on lap 47, diving for
the pits to take on sufficient
fuel to finish the gruelling
70-lap race. The Team comes away
from the Canadian Grand Prix
weekend encouraged by its
performance both in qualifying
and in the race, and now looks
forward to next weekend’s United
States Grand Prix – an event
that last year yielded a World
Championship point for the
Faenza squad.
CHRISTIJAN ALBERS
“I’m happy with the
result of today’s race. We had a good pace and good lap
times, and it was a little bit of a shame that we had a pit
stop followed by a blue-flag situation, as I think that’s
where we lost position to Jordan.
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Minardi comes
away from the Canadian Grand Prix weekend encouraged
by its performance in qualifying and in the
race |
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In a Canadian Grand Prix full
of incident and mechanical carnage, the
Minardi F1 Team recorded its best result
of the 2005 season, Christijan Albers
taking the chequered flag in 11th
position and recording some
competitive lap times |
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"We had a better pace in the
early stages of the race, so it
was a bit frustrating to finish
behind them. I was really
fighting hard at the end, but it
was just not possible to pass
Monteiro. Even so, I think it
was a good result for the team,
and a good qualifying
performance yesterday. Now it’s
maximum attack for Indianapolis,
where we’ll go for it again.”
PATRICK FRIESACHER
“I think
we suffered with the tyre choice
we made this weekend, as
Christijan was on the harder
tyres and I was on the softer
compound. I had a really good
start, and was right behind him,
but I couldn’t push as hard as I
wanted to, as the car had quite
a lot of oversteer in it at that
point. After the second pit
stop, I started to lose the
power steering, and it was
pretty clear there was a
hydraulic problem.”
PAUL STODDART, Team Principal
“Without
doubt, today’s race was
Minardi’s strongest so far this
year, with a gutsy performance
from Christijan to finish in
P11. Sadly, Patrick retired on
lap 39, with a power steering
failure, which resulted in a
loss of hydraulic pressure.
"There’s no question but that
there is still performance to
come from the PS05, and we now
look forward to next weekend’s
race, in Indianapolis.”
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