Formula 1
Stunning performance from Ralf
It may have been Juan Pablo Montoya who made it onto the podium at the Hungaroring yesterday but it was Williams teammate Ralf Schumacher who won praise for his performance. Schumacher spun at the second corner on the first lap, which dropped him ...
Edited: Aug 26, 2003, 1:54 AM
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It may have been Juan Pablo Montoya who made it onto the podium at the Hungaroring yesterday but it was Williams teammate Ralf Schumacher who won praise for his performance. Schumacher spun at the second corner on the first lap, which dropped him all the way to the back of the pack. Refusing to be beaten, Ralf fought his was back through the field and by the first round of pit stops was up to ninth behind Montoya.
Ralf Schumacher.
Photo by BMW PressClub.
The Hungaroring is notorious for being very hard to overtake at but Schumacher dispatched quite a few rivals at the revised turn one in his charge to finish fourth. "I have to say that this was in my opinion Ralf's best race of the season," Motorsport director Mario Theissen told the BMW website. "To finish fourth from the last place on a track where overtaking is as difficult as here in Hungary, this is a stunning performance indeed."
Schumacher himself was less than pleased with the result, as from second on the grid he had every chance of claiming victory: "Okay, it was nice that I made it to fourth place, but I'd rather made it on the rostrum," he commented. "But what can you do?"
"First I had a bad start, than a slow puncture in the third stint and some brake problems at the end, so fourth place was the best I could achieve. This is really annoying, as there was still a small championship chance for me but this chance is even smaller now. Still, I won't give up and will try and give my very best to use this chance."
Theissen is aware that time is running out this year and can understand Ralf's situation: "He knows that there are only three more races to go. And although he has made up some points on Michael, he is well aware that he is running out of races."
As for the final three Grands Prix, Theissen is optimistic but always mindful of the Ferrari threat: "I see us extremely competitive in Monza, in Indianapolis I expect some other teams to be on one level with us, and Suzuka has been suiting Ferrari best in the past. Now we have to wait how fast Ferrari will recover."
Ralf also has confidence in the performance of the car for the end of the year: "I didn't expect us to be that dominant at this point of the season as there is still more to come from our car," he said. "I think that we will be the favourites at the coming circuits apart of Suzuka. I believe that Ferrari still has got the better car, but they are racing on the wrong tyres."
Williams now leads the Constructors' championship by eight points from Ferrari.
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