Trulli busy holding everybody up!

By role
March 15 2004

Italian Jarno Trulli had again to fight against bad luck when a punt by BAR's Takuma Sato at the start of the race meant a broken diffusser and a hard time at the race.

The Italian had to brake hard at the first turn in order to avoid his teammate and that meant that Sato could not avoid the Italian compromissing his race from there on.

On an interview to Autosport.com after the race the Italian was downbeat by the circumstances that led to his difficult Sunday:

"I made a fantastic start. Fernando came across and I had to brake very hard to avoid an accident. At the same stage someone hit me on the back and damaged my car. From that time on I was fighting until the end of the race. It wasn't an easy race for me, and I was pretty slow, fighting with the balance, fighting with the car. I'm happy and I'm glad that I finished, and at least I got two points." He told Autosport. "It was a loss of grip completely all the way through. At the end of the race I saw I had a broken diffuser, but I didn't really check anything else. It wasn't an easy race for me. I was trying very hard to hold everybody up. I wasn't very happy with the balance, I was trying to push hard, but unfortunately I wasn't there. I managed to finish the race, and I'm happy with two points. I'm looking forward to the next one."

Trulli thiough recognises that his race was also compromised for the fact that he was starting so back on the grid:

"...I didn't feel very confident on one single lap, and I was really hoping to do a very good race, because during winter testing and even here I've always been very competitive over longer distances, but unfortunately it didn't work today." He said.

There is reason for hope as Alonso was able to finish on the points and also the car showed to be reliable:

"We had good reliability even during winter testing, and it's good that the car seems reliable, so we can push it even further. We've got a new engine, new car, and we finished with both cars. We are definitely confident that we can push even more for the next few races. We are waiting for some engine developments." He added. "... it's definitely good to see Fernando there, and it's good to see that we could both be there. It gives us a good boost for the rest of the season."

Trulli also talked abouth the thrilling starts of both Renault's:

"Yeah, we did extremely good starts, which didn't really help me, because I got a broken car! But it's good to have a good start, because you know you can count on this and you can make some positions after the start."