Italian GP Ferrari race notes

Rubens Barrichello
"I am not sure what happened in the pit stop, but it cost me a lot of time - enough to lose the race. But, all the same, we put on a good show. The Bridgestone tyres were great and the engine was very strong. The two stop strategy was definitely the right decision and Ross Brawn was magic to think of this, which gave us the opportunity to fight the Williams. I passed Juan Pablo because I saw he had problems with his rear tyres and locked up and I got past him on the inside. It was a fair fight. With Ralf, I think he was also struggling with his rear tyres and his brakes, especially at Turn 1. So I braked early there. He seemed to want the outside line at the chicane but when he missed it, I got by."

Michael Schumacher
"Luckily, everything went well and nothing happened. I am glad this weekend is over. It was a pity that Rubens was not able to win this race. But overall, the most important thing is that nothing bad happened this afternoon."

Jean Todt
"I am happy for two reasons. The first is that this difficult weekend is now over. The second is that we got a car to the podium and another across the line in fourth place. Rubens drove a really great race and he could have won. Unfortunately, a problem with the re-setting of the refuelling rig, at the moment of his first pit stop, cost him around seven seconds, which was probably enough to deprive him of the victory. As for Michael, he drove a good race in a professional manner. For various reasons, his heart wasn't in it at this track. We would have liked to have celebrated our two world titles in front of all our fans, but world events meant this would have been inappropriate. For us, this race was just another round out of the seventeen. On behalf of all the team, I send our best wishes to Alessandro Zanardi. The thoughts of all of us are with him today."