By role
April 27 2004

Spanish F1 driver Fernando Alonso was tired but happy after the San Marino Grand Prix. Even if he could only finish 4th just behind the Williams BMW of Juan Pablo Montoya. The Spaniard was once again one of the stars of the race. His race was compromised at the beginning after a bad start and the push from behind from an out of control David Coulthard.

The shunt was pretty impressive and Alonso at first did not know what had happened:

“Suddenly I felt a big impact on my helmet and I did not know what it was; even if a car had landed on top of me or what. It was quite a big impact and I spent the entire first lap touching my helmet with my hand to see if it was fine. I was lucky there because the rear wing could have been broken.”

Alonso did not do a great start and soon he was fighting to maintain his 6th position of the grid:

“My reaction time on the grid was good because Ralf (Schumacher) jumped the start. I am sure because he was next to me and the lights were red. When I saw him moving I almost followed through but I exited when the lights were gone. From there on I saw cars go by me and this time it did not work out well for me. In Australia the start gave me the podium. Here I may have lost it at the start.” He said.

From there Alonso was stuck on traffic and found it impossible to pass the Ferrari of Barrichello who was in front of him:

“I was able to race behind Barrichello most of the race and every time he hit the gas or on the straights he made a gap. To fight with them (Ferrari) will be quite complicated unless we improve a lot on tyres. That could add some emotion to the championship.” Alonso said.

On the first pit stop he could not pass any driver because of the traffic he found. However, on his last pit stop a series of good laps and a great job by the mechanics meant that he was able to overtake Trulli and Barrichello. Once on 5th position he had Ralf Schumacher in front lapping slower. An aggressive move by the Spaniard saw him gain the 4th position:

“In the previous turn he touched the grass and exited quite slow. I knew I could pass him easily but at the end it was harder because Ralf (Schumacher) usually makes this kind of moves. Though thank God I could finish the race without problems because when we touched I thought I had broken my front wing and that I was out of the race.” He said.

Alonso is happy with 4th place taking under consideration that he was not happy with the balance of his car:

“ I am quite happy. The car has been hard to drive all weekend and in the race has been the same. I have had to sweat blood all race to finish 4th from 9th. The car was moving everyplace and on the two or three laps I had to push I did it taking quite some risks. When I saw myself in front of Jarno (Trulli) and Rubens (Barrichello) after the pit stop could not believe it. To get five points out of this weekend, as things developed, is the best we could hope for.”

Alonso does not think that the problems with the balance of the car were due to the increase power of the engine:

“No, we have done prior test and it was not as hard to drive. I think is due mainly to the characteristics of the tyres that we brought here. Maybe they are not the most appropriate. We have to be careful on next week tests at Silverstone if we want to be competitive at Barcelona.” He said.

Barcelona is Alonso’s home race and the Spaniard will want to better or at least match last year performance when he finished 2nd:

“To me is one of the most important races of the year and hopefully I’ll be able to finish the race. After scoring in four consecutive races to finish at Barcelona will be great. The final result will depend on other factors but if we finish we will end up scoring points and I am sure people will enjoy the race.” Alonso concluded.