German GP Minardi race notes

GERMAN GRAND PRIX - Hockenheim, 2nd August 1998 THE RACE

ESTEBAN TUERO Chassis 05 16th time: 1:22:35,459 "Today I finished my 3rd Grand Prix of my first Formula 1 season, even if with some problems. In fact, I had to make my pit-stop early because a flap on the rear wing - due to the vibrations - had broken off. A few laps later I had some problems with the gearbox, which I got lucky over, and I managed to finish the race at a quite constant pace. It has been a very demanding Grand Prix as this is a very difficult track, which does not allow you any error margin and requires maximum concentration."

SHINJI NAKANO Chassis 04 stop at 36th lap for gearbx failure "I am very sorry that I could not finish my race, which was interrupted because of the gearbox failure. Some laps before stopping I saw some smoke and I understood that something was wrong, but I could not tell if it was the engine or the gearbox. It was no easy race, anyway, because I was struggling with oversteer all the time."

GIAN CARLO MINARDI - " Taking into account that Hockenheim is to be put - for sure - among the tracks less favourable to our cars, it is very important for us that Tuero - even though the problems he had during the race - saw his third chequered flag of the year, accumulating valuable experience for the future. It's a pity for Nakano, who was prevented by today's gearbox failure from continuing his series of positive results."

TREVOR KNOWLES - (Ford Cosworth) Support engineer: " After the warm-up, Nakano's M3 engine was replaced by an M1 spec. In fact, thanks to the spectrometric analisys of the oil, an anomaly in the figures was found, which allowed us to discover a probable malfunction of the engine. Anyway, in the race, both engines ran without any problem (Tuero had an M3)."