Hungarian GP Minardi race notes

Marc Gene:
"It has been a very difficult race. My start was fairly good, I overtook two cars although they passed me at the second turn. Problems began with the overlappings: as Irvine got behind me, I was waved blue flags late, therefore I did not know whether I had to defend my position or I had to let him pass; I have asked to the team what I must do but radios were not working good and I did not succeed in having a good communication with the pit-wall. So I didn’t let him pass and I was given a stop and go penalty as a resutl. I feel sad for I caused Irvine to lose time but I didn’t act like this on purpose; if I had been informed that he was overlapping me I would have moved away as I always do in these case. A part from this, the car was not bad however the race proved to be really tough, as I had expected. I hope it will go better in the next final races."

Gaston Mazzacane:
"For the umpteenth time some mechanical problems hindered me like they did over the whole weekend. With only 10 laps left to the end I was informed that the water temperature was too high and I was called in to check what was wrong. It turned out that a visor had got stuck inside the radiator. Then I took to track again but the engine was affected by then and, on the in lap, it broke down definitively. A part from that, I feel sad for having lost the possibility to race in my car. In fact with a few minutes left to the formation lap a suspected gearbox problem was found on my race car. I therefore had to start from the stands with the spare car, which had been set up for Marc. Clearly there was no time to lose and I wish to thank all the lads for they really did an excellent job preparing the car in a very short time. Unfortunately the set up was totally different and this resulted in an additional disadvantage for me."

C@!Gabriele Rumi:
"Today’s was a hard race, since the very beginning of the starting line up, as we found a problem on Gastón’s car forcing him to start from the pits with the spare car which had been set up for Marc. A part from that, the only issue I wish to consider here is the 10” penalty given to Marc. Considering that the “waved blue flags” sign never appeared on the monitors to report car no. 20 was being overlapped by Irvine and that the marshals did not wave the blue flags on the first two laps, we believe that this episode is to be attributed to a bad management from the marshals. What happened was not made on purpose and we apologised with the team manager of the Jaguar Team. Our car was never showed on the TV screen and when this happened finally, once we realised what was happening, we immediately informed Marc but unfortunately the penalty had been inflicted at the same time. With reference to Ron Dennis’s complaints, I consider them totally out of place because he did not suffer any damage from us."