By role
September 14 2003

Spanish F1 driver, Fernando Alonso, scored a point today at Monza about a very hard race. The Spaniard started from the back of the grid after he lost the traction control on the qualifying session of yesterday what meant that he finished well off the pole set by Michael Schumacher. Starting from the end meant that the Spaniard was going to need a great start in orderr to overcome some of the slower drivers in front of him.

However, as the Jaguar of Justin Wilson had problems at the start Jos Verstappen had to make a sudden move and Alonso run on the back of his car.

This meant that Alonso's car was damaged and he had to pit after the first lap. His race from there one was going to be an struggle after exiting more than 50 seconds behind the leader:

"Both myself and the team had a pretty unlucky weekend: Jarno was in a good position when he had to retire, and I had problems in qualifying and the race. Starting from the back of the grid is always a risk and unfortunately, I lost the front wing at the start: I hit Jos' car as he was trying to avoid the Jaguar. I lost a lap by stopping and after that, all I could do was push to the limit for the rest of the race. Our lap-times were good but, with all the problems we had, it wasn't enough to score big points today.”

Jos Verstappen was sympathetic after the race but he defended that he did not have anywhere to go after avoiding Wilson's Jaguar:

"I feel sorry for Fernando, who drove into the back of my car at the start," said Verstappen. "I wouldn't have held him up, as he is involved in the World Championship battle and needs the points, but a Jaguar stopped on the grid in front of me and I guess he couldn't see it from where he was. It's a shame, but that's racing."

It was a great start from Trulli though that was able to jump Marc Gene and Kimi Raikkonen and to fight Juan Pablo Montoya for the second position on the first turns before he had an electronic failure:

"There’s nothing much to say. I got a flying start and was fighting with Michael and Juan Pablo in the first few corners. I was going through the second Lesmo when I felt that the power steering had failed, then the engine cut out. It's a real shame, because the car was good today." Said the Italian driver.

The fact that Alonso was still able to manage a point after overtaking Heidfield on the last lap was recognised by the team:

"I'm very sorry for Jarno, who made a fantastic start and was competitive all weekend: we still don’t know exactly what happened. As for Fernando, his car was damaged but he drove an incredible race. His lap-times were extremely
consistent, and that allowed him to score points."

Nick Heidfeld was not happy to loose some points just on the final moments of the race:

"I had a good race until I had to let Gene lap me on the last lap. At the same moment Alonso, who was right behind me, took the chance to overtake. He had got close to me in the first place because I'd been baulked badly by Baumgartner for several laps and had thus lost valuable ground." The German said.