Canadian GP Arrows race notes

This morning's warm up session continued to show great consistency from the Orange Arrows cars and drivers, with Pedro running in the top 6 and Jos in the top 12, although lap times were marginally slower than in qualifying due to the slightly slippery early morning circuit.

This strong performance further transferred to the race, although Pedro de la Rosa's chance of finishing in the points was hampered by the rain coming slightly later than expected requiring him to do a third pit stop, and then an incident with Sauber's Pedro Diniz causing Pedro to hit the armco and retire from the race on lap 48. Before this Pedro was contending comfortably in the top six. Jos Verstappen drove a truly fantastic race, demonstrating his driving abilities even in the pouring rain as he fought his way to finish in 5th place with timely and accurate overtaking.

Pedro de la Rosa
"This is a major boost to the team and Jos did very well. I was holding a good position and the car was running very well but I came in and changed tyres on my second pit stop and then about 3 or 4 laps later it started raining which was later than we expected so I had to come in to change tyres again and 3 pit stops was too much. That finished my race really and destroyed all my possibilities of finishing in the points. Then there was the incident with Pedro Diniz. I think it's better for everyone to watch it on TV because I don't think he saw me and he didn't leave me anywhere to go. I was next to him and he pushed me onto the grass and then I hit the armco so I think it was a very dangerous move from him".

Jos Verstappen
"I'm very very please about the race. The car was handling very well, especially in the rain. I think we had a little more downforce than we had planned for the dry, the car was very good on the brakes and that's where I was catching everybody up. The team did a brilliant job to call me in at exactly the right moment as I was in constant contact with them. It started to rain and the track got very slippery and a lot of cars went off, so I came in just at the right moment and made a lot of time. You have to try as 7th position is nothing and you have to try for points and that's what I did. I moved up to 6th position and I felt I could take on Trulli so when he braked very early on a corner I overtook him for my 5th position. It's a great result for the team and me".

Tom Walkinshaw:
"Apart from the rain coming on a little bit later than we anticipated the race went pretty much as planned. We knew it was going to rain so we ran a higher downforce than normal and we split the two cars with different strategies in the hope that one of them would catch the weather window, and unfortunately we missed it by about 4 laps with Pedro. Jos did a superb job as did Pedro at the beginning and it's unfortunate Diniz drove him off the road."