Japan: Safety Car ruined Ralf's race

By Toyota Media
October 9 2005

After yesterday's pole position, Ralf Schumacher stormed into an early lead in the early laps of the Japanese Grand Prix. But the safety car period did his strategy no favours, and he ended up taking a solitary point for 8th place.

"That was a pretty tough end to a weekend that promised so much," said Ralf. "I made a great start and was getting away from the rest of the pack when the safety car came out, which was bad news for our three-stop strategy. When it stayed out for so many laps it effectively put an end to our chances. We still raced as hard as we could and fought to grab as much out of the race as possible. Unfortunately in the second half of the race I had quite a heavy vibration and so I had to back off again. Without the safety car our strategy could have put us somewhere between third and fifth place but I guess a point is better than nothing. We'll hope to do better next time."