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Formula 1 News - June 2005
Minardi

12 June: Canadian Grand Prix - Race Report - Minardi

MAKING GROUND

In a Canadian Grand Prix full of incident and mechanical carnage, the Minardi F1 Team recorded its best result of the 2005 season, Christijan Albers taking the chequered flag in 11th position and recording some competitive lap times in the process. Team mate, Patrick Friesacher, also ran strongly from the start, but his car suffered a loss of hydraulic pressure soon after the second of his scheduled pit stops, and he was forced to retire on lap 39. Like a number of drivers, Albers took advantage of the Safety Car deployment on lap 47, diving for the pits to take on sufficient fuel to finish the gruelling 70-lap race. The Team comes away from the Canadian Grand Prix weekend encouraged by its performance both in qualifying and in the race, and now looks forward to next weekend’s United States Grand Prix – an event that last year yielded a World Championship point for the Faenza squad.

CHRISTIJAN ALBERS
Best lap: 1 min 18.462 secs
Position: 11th

“I’m happy with the result of today’s race. We had a good pace and good lap times, and it was a little bit of a shame that we had a pit stop followed by a blue-flag situation, as I think that’s where we lost position to Jordan. We had a better pace in the early stages of the race, so it was a bit frustrating to finish behind them. I was really fighting hard at the end, but it was just not possible to pass Monteiro. Even so, I think it was a good result for the team, and a good qualifying performance yesterday. Now it’s maximum attack for Indianapolis, where we’ll go for it again.”

PATRICK FRIESACHER
Best lap: 1 min 18.709 secs
Position: DNF

“I think we suffered with the tyre choice we made this weekend, as Christijan was on the harder tyres and I was on the softer compound. I had a really good start, and was right behind him, but I couldn’t push as hard as I wanted to, as the car had quite a lot of oversteer in it at that point. After the second pit stop, I started to lose the power steering, and it was pretty clear there was a hydraulic problem.”

PAUL STODDART, Team Principal, Minardi Cosworth

“Without doubt, today’s race was Minardi’s strongest so far this year, with a gutsy performance from Christijan to finish in P11. Sadly, Patrick retired on lap 39, with a power steering failure, which resulted in a loss of hydraulic pressure. There’s no question but that there is still performance to come from the PS05, and we now look forward to next weekend’s race, in Indianapolis.”

2005 Canadian Grand Prix - Main Page
2005 Canadian Grand Prix - Team and Driver Race Reports Page

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