By role
April 4 2004

Spanish driver Fernando Alonso had to fight a hard race to finish 6th at the Bahraini Grand Prix. Alonso started the race from 16th after his car had severe balance problems during qualifying. His flying start was somehow hampered for the fact that he had to start from the dirty side of the track. An added difficulty was the shunt he had on the first lap with another driver that obligued him to stop on the pitsafter the first lap.

The Spanish driver rejoint the race dead last and more than 30 seconds behind the rest of the drivers.

He fought a strong race from there setting competitive lap times iin order to move up the order.

After several overtaking maneuvers and a clever strategy by the team he was able to finish 6th just behind the BAR Honda of Takuma Sato.

"I did the maximum possible today. Quite honestly, I was very surprised by how some cars were being driven today: a Jaguar nearly put me in the wall at the start of the race, and then some other drivers were a little too difficult to overtake. Having said that, given the weekend I have had, three points is still a good score for the championship. In reality, I started this race half a minute behind everybody else after my first stop, and just pushed all the way. The car balance was perfect all the way though. We have some performance evolutions coming at Imola, and I believe that with an even stronger package, and most importantly if we have some weekends without any problems, then we are capable of getting regular podium finishes." He said after the race.

Pat Symonds was pleased with the performance from Alonso.

"...Fernando knew things would be more of a struggle, and his cause was not helped when he had to stop at the end of the first lap. However, the team reacted well to the changed circumstances and Fernando drove his usual strong race, but did not quite have the performance edge to pass Sato. Nevertheless, the whole team did well at this new circuit, and to move to second in the Constructors' Championship is a just reward for all the work that has been accomplished at Enstone and Viry-Châtillon." He said.

Team Manager, Flavio Briatore, was also sattisfied on how his drivers raced today.

"The entire team had a great race today. Both drivers performed fantastically and without some variables that were out of our control, the result could have been even better. We have achieved our reliability objectives for the first three races, and go into the European part of the season second in the championship. Things will continue to improve." He said.