NewsOnF1 - 31 March News

31-Mar: For the second race in a row, Juan Pablo Montoya and Michael Schumacher clash on track. This time though it was Juan Pablo who ended up the big loser having lost the potential of a race win when he hit the back of Michael's car. Juan Pablo Montoya sees it as an unfair move by Michael that caused him to lose his front wing and said "I thought he was a fair guy to race with but he's definitely not. I gave him room in the first two corners, it's a bit disappointing. I went to the inside, I made my move before him and I was behind him and after I had made my move he shut the door. I had enough speed to pass him there. He reacted later than me and I am very disappointed.
Last week I took his front wing, even though I gave him room, and I got penalised. This week he shuts the door in front of me in the same way maybe as Rubens' move on Ralf in the race before. I was even closer and here we go. Who pays? I pay again and it just keeps going."

Meanwhile Jenson Button was delighted to have managed to keep Montoya behind towards the end of the race as they fought for 4th place and said "Having to keep Juan at bay was exciting. Nine laps to go and he's right up my arse and I am thinking, 'Oh'. The boys on the radio said 'you can keep him at bay, no problem' but I was thinking: 'He's right behind me!'. I don't think he could get close enough to me, though, and I have had so many moments like that in F1 that you just relax and push as hard as you can. It's good to be able to hold off a Williams like that."

31-Mar: At the post Race press conference for the Brazilian Grand Prix, Michael Schumacher enjoyed the first few corners of the race battling with Juan Pablo for the lead and said "It was an exciting first two corners where I have to say Juan Pablo behaved really well. I was thinking I could outbrake him in the first corner, but he was braking so late that it was clear that he would almost miss the corner. So then I prepared for turn two which worked, actually, and he just left enough space for both of us to go through the corner and then I don't actually know what happened into turn four. I moved over to the left to leave the outside free. I didn't feel anything, I just suddenly saw him dropping back."
As for his fight with Ralf Schumacher for the lead following the pit stops, Michael was comfortable keeping Ralf behind and said "The only overtaking you can do here is into turn one and I was making sure that he couldn't. That meant braking very late into the last corner and having a good run out of it and I was controlling that in mirrors and I don't think he was really close enough to outbrake me into the first corner in actual fact, so there wasn't that kind of a worry. In the infield, unless you make a mistake and you run wide, it's basically impossible to overtake."
As for his expectations for Imola especially that Williams are also expected to be strong there, he said "As you have seen it has been a very tight race. We did it, certainly. Imola is another one where it's going to be a difficult one, I believe, from the experience that we had last year, although we have improved. It wasn't luck that we won the race, we worked hard for it because we had the new car here, because we had new Bridgestone tyres here and altogether the package made us win this race, so I believe it doesn't look too bad for Imola to look from what we saw last year. Nevertheless we look forward to coming to Imola, our home Grand Prix and hopefully do something good there."

Ralf Schumacher indicated that his first stint wasn't too good and that was why he dropped back compared to Michael and said "The first stint wasn't too good, I wasn't too happy with the balance of the car so we changed something at the pit stop which made it a lot better so I was able to catch up Michael. Even though I was maybe slightly quicker than he was I wasn't able to get close enough to overtake him down the straight. It wasn't an exciting race. I'll do it next time."
Ralf also indicated that the new Ferrari doesn't appear to be as quick as they were led to believe and said "I must say that according to comments from Ferrari side from track side, we were expecting a really big step forward and it has been a step forward but not as big we were expecting. We were able to qualify beside them, with a better start maybe we were able to win the race or a bit better first stint, so I'm full of hope that we can go to Imola and again have a very tight and close race with them."

David Coulthard was feeling great to be on the podium for the first time this season and said "Yes, it's been a while since I've been here. I haven't been here for any of the qualifying sessions this year either. It's a great feeling to be back on the podium. Quite a hard race obviously, because the Renaults got past me at the start and Jenson made a mistake at the last corner so I was able to slipstream him. Jarno was a lot more difficult and it was just a question of being patient for the pit stop."
He admitted that they have a more work to do before catching the top 2 teams as they haven't made the a big enough step from last year and said "We obviously haven't taken as big a step forward as the other cars during the winter. We know this car is a quicker car than last year's when we have done the back-to-back tests, but we just haven't taken a big enough step, it's quite clear. We just need to work on each area of the car a little bit more."

31-Mar: What the teams and drivers said following the Race in Brazil ... Report

31-Mar: Brazilian GP – Race: Michael Schumacher wins the race ahead of Ralf Schumacher and David Coulthard. Jarno Trulli, Juan Pablo Montoya and Mika Salo make the top 6 ... Timed Results ... Report ... Notes.

31-Mar: Brazilian GP – Warm-up Session: Michael Schumacher sets the fastest time of the session ahead of Pedro de la Rosa and Kimi Raikkonen. Ralf Schumacher, Juan Pablo Montoya and Rubens Barrichello make the top 6 ... Timed Results ... Report ... Notes

Brazilian Formula 1 Grand Prix Schedule:

Session	Time (Local / GMT) - Current local time
Friday Practice Session 1 Friday Practice Session 2 Saturday Practice Session 1 Saturday Practice Session 2 Qualifying Session Warm-up Session Race	11 AM Sao Paulo Time / 2 PM GMT 1 PM Sao Paulo Time / 4 PM GMT 9 AM Sao Paulo Time / 12 PM GMT 10:15 AM Sao Paulo Time / 1:15 PM GMT 1 PM Sao Paulo Time / 4 PM GMT 9:30 AM Sao Paulo Time / 12:30 PM GMT 2 PM Sao Paulo Time / 5 PM GMT
Go to the Brazilian GP Page