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For Michelin the United
States Grand Prix would see three of the top six drivers supplied by
Michelin. Third would go to McLaren's David Coulthard, who was just ahead
of BMW WilliamsF1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya.
Coulthard opted to make just one pit stop, but he just failed to get ahead
of the leading Ferrari's when they pitted for the first time. "For the
last 40 laps, I was not pushing as hard as I could have done because I
chose to look after my engine" said David.
 Juan
Pablo was also on a one-stop strategy. But his race would suffer when his
team-mate Ralf Schumacher spun and pushed him off the track. Montoya was
to recover and go on to close the gap to Coulthard in the closing stages
of the race. Ralf would lose his rear wing in the incident with Juan Pablo
and spent the rest of the afternoon at the tail of the field after pitting
for repairs. Renault's Jarno Trulli was fifth, ahead of team-mate Jenson
Button in eighth. McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen ran in the top six but suffered
a misfire in the early stages and his engine eventually blew up.
Pierre Dupasquier, Michelin Motorsport Director, answered some questions.
David Coulthard was Michelin's best-placed driver today, in third place,
and you had three cars in the top six. You might not have won but you look
pretty upbeat about the result?
"Absolutely, I am really pleased with the way our tyres have performed
this weekend. I would go so far as to say that this was our strongest
performance of the year, even though we didn't win. Our quickest four cars
were all slowed a little by various factors. David Coulthard and Kimi
Raikkonen were managing their engine and the two Williams-BMWs were slowed
by their collision on lap two. The important thing is that our tyres were
quick and consistent on a one-stop strategy and showed no signs of serious
wear, what was definitely not the case for our rival even on two stops
strategies. In many ways this has been a very successful days for us."
All Michelin's drivers opted to run with your harder, primary (A) tyre. Is
there anything you could have done to extract even more performance this
weekend?
"We only completed a limited amount of running with this compound before
the United States Grand Prix. I believe we are clearly working in the
right direction and need only a little bit of fine-tuning to take the next
step forward."
Do you have any particular developments in mind for the final race of the
season in Japan?
"We will begin working on that immediately. We have not finalised our
dry-weather compounds for Suzuka yet, but it's safe to say we will be
relying on tyres from the same family that has proved to be so effective
during the past few grands prix." |
