By role
June 18 2003

Spanish driver Fernando Alonso set the fastest lap at last week’s Canadian GP at the Gilles Villeneuve circuit of Montreal. Finishing 4th the race just 2 seconds behind race winner Michael Schumacher he was able to hold on 3rd position ion the Drivers Championship behind Schumacher and Raikkonen. Alonso was quite satisfied after the race and after being one of the younger drivers to set a fast lap:
“I really went for the fast lap”. He said. “I saw on the screens around the track that Montoya had the fastest lap in 1.16, and as I was feeling the car I knew I could improve it.”
Some insiders have mentioned that the fact that he was not able to capitalize on the faster car to reach the podium should be a minus on the team for a less than convenient race strategy. Alonso, however, did not agree:
“I think we deserve a 10 all of us, both the team and myself. To be fighting for the win and to finish 4th on a track that in theory we should not have excelled it’s not bad at all. It’s much that we had hoped.”
Alonso was quite satisfied of his weekend: “I leave Canada with more points and without a single mistake in the whole week-end. Also with loads of hope and morale for the future in all of us. Last laps were really great. I could see I was catching them up easily, but I knew than to overtake it was going to be impossible, as it turned out”. Alonso said. “I could see the people on the stands cheering for me, people at the Paddock Club cheering and me doing my best, gaining a second a lap with the big guys. I have given all I had. A great race”.
Alonso struggled at the start of the race however, after some adjustments his race improved quite a lot:
“Before my first stop I asked on the radio to change the settings of my front wing. After the change it was a totally different car”. He added. “The 4th place on the grid of Saturday was like a pole as I was carrying more fuel than the rest. We’ll just have to see in the upcoming races, it has been bad luck that no one at the front had retired from the race, we’ll have to see what happens on the rest of the season.”
Alonso is 3rd on the Drivers Championship and has Ralf Schumacher just one point behind and Rubens Barrichello also close behind:
“My goal is the same: to keep getting points. At the end I have a bit of a bad after-taste because I think I could have overtaken them. After the slowest turn I was leaving earlier, in first and second gear, but afterwards they were gone and I couldn’t overtake them”. He concluded.