San Marino: Post-Race Notes - Ferrari
First win of the season for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro. This is the Scuderia's eighth San Marino Grand Prix victory, the 184th from 727 Grand Prix starts. Michael Schumacher took his eighty fifth career win, the seventh at Imola.
Jean Todt: When I was going up to the podium, I said to Michael that I could not remember the way anymore, as it had been such a long time since the last victory! This result comes courtesy of all the hard work over the past few weeks carried out by the team and our partners, first and foremost Bridgestone and Shell and it was made all the better coming in front of so many of our fans and employees who filled their own grandstand here. Michael secured a fantastic win, rounded off with a good fourth place from Felipe. We had expected it to be cooler and the heat saw us suffer a bit, which shows how just the smallest variation in temperature can affect the pecking order. It's and odd thing to say, but in Australia we wanted it hotter and it was cool and here we have the opposite! This result is very encouraging for the future and is a great boost. There are fourteen races still to fight for and we know that if all the parts of the jigsaw puzzle are in place, then we can look for the wins in order to meet our targets.
Michael Schumacher: I am very happy! The result shows that work pays off and that the effort put in by everyone – the team and our partners – has delivered its reward. The key moment was staying ahead after the second pit stop. As we saw last year, overtaking at this track it's almost impossible, unless the guy in front makes a mistake. With all my years of experience, I knew that what I wanted to do was keep Alonso behind me, but at my pace, not pushing flat out and that's what I did. At this time I had a bit of graining, as had been the case in free practice and now we must work out what caused it. I hope we can keep up this standard in the coming races and I think that from now on, we will be very competitive.
Felipe Massa: It was a very difficult race, but it turned out well for Ferrari in the end. Michael's win and my fourth place make a very nice result. I would have liked to have been on the podium, but I am still pleased with this as it was important to bring so many points home. I had some problems in my second stint, but in the third one I could push as hard as I wanted again.
Ross Brawn: Naturally, we are very happy with this result. Winning in front of our fans is something very special. It was a very tough race and the team did a great job in Michael's final pit stop, which got him back out on track ahead of Alonso. We struggled a bit in the second part of the race, probably because of the tyres, and we could not maintain the pace we had in the first stint. In these laps, Michael drove perfectly, managing to keep Alonso behind him. Felipe drove a strong race. He had some difficult moments but he proved capable of getting out of them in fine form, driving very well. A fantastic result down to great work from the team, from Bridgestone and from Shell. It is the first “real” win for a car designed by Aldo Costa, which is particularly pleasing. Let's hope this is a good omen for the rest of the season.
.
