Belgian GP Ferrari race notes

Spa-Francorchamps, 29th August

Eddie Irvine: fourth at 44.948, 44 laps, F399 chassis 191 Mika Salo: seventh at 56.249, 44 laps, F399 chassis 195

Jean Todt "The result is unsatisfactory because of the small number of points we picked up. Eddie's car has been unstable and lacking a good balance all weeknd. Mika ran his own race, starting ninth and finishing seventh, without any cars dropping ahead of him. The Championships are still open. Next week we will be testing for three days at Monza, with both Michael and Eddie. This session will be very important if we want to stay in the running for the titles."

Eddie Irvine "Considering our situation today, I am happy that I am only one point behind the new leader in the Championship, as I thought it could be a bigger gap. We have not been fast enough all weekend and it was very hard to do good lap times in the race. We have to continue to fight for points and not give up until the end of the season. This was actually a good result for me. Thanks to a good start and a good strategy we managed to keep the position and pick up a few points. I think we should be more competitive at Monza than we were here, but our main rivals will also be very strong."

Mika Salo "It took a long time to set up the car this weekend but we improved it for the race although it felt slow on the straights. I could not pass Hill as he was very quick in a straight line and that cost me a lot of time. I had a bit too much downforce on the car, which cost me some speed although of course the car was fine in the corners. Next week, I will be in Monza for the test, in case I am needed after Michael has tested."

Temperatures: air 21-22 C, track 28-38 C