Australian GP: Sauber race notes

Team Sauber Petronas drivers Felipe Massa and Jacques Villeneuve finished in 10th and 13th places respectively in today's Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.

Jacques Villeneuve:

"That was a very disappointing race. We were a lot slower than I thought we would be. The car was very difficult to drive and I couldn't get any grip at the start. That's it."

Felipe Massa:

"It was pretty difficult to drive the car with a lot of fuel aboard but I managed reasonable times and was keeping ahead of Michael and Kimi until I got very close to Nick one lap and lost grip in his turbulence. Anyway, I just did what I could and finishing 10th wasn't so bad when you look where I started. In the circumstances, with lots of fuel, the car was good."

Willy Rampf (Technical Director):

"We tried two different strategies today. Since Felipe had to start so far back we elected to run him on a one-stop plan, while Jacques made two stops. Unfortunately Jacques lost the majority of his positions after losing momentum battling with Nick (Heidfeld) in the first corner after the start, and we could not recover them."

"The season has started, we have learned a lot from this race, and we are already pushing forward with our development programme to put ourselves in a stronger position in Sepang."

-sauber-