Drivers about their Hungarian race

Kimi Raikkonen is very optimistic after his win in Hungary. He cut 10 points off the gap between him and Alonso. The Spaniard and his teammate at Renault did have a bad race with no points at all for Renault in the Hungarian capitalcity empty-handed. World champion Schumacher was happy on his behalf as a second place was the best he had hoped for.

Kimi Raikkonen Raikkonen admits that the gap between him and Fernando
Alonso (26 points) is a huge obstacle, but there are still
six GP's remaining.

The 'Iceman': "For sure, it looks better now than after the last race, but it is just unlucky that we always seem to throw away ten points and [Alonso] gets it and, then, at the next race, we get it back. We are just going backwards and forwards all the time, but it definitely looks better again and there are still six races to go. If we can do these kinds of results - and maybe something happens to him - we can definitely
still fight for the championship. That is what we are going to do.
Hopefully, we can close the gap in the next two races, then push as hard as we can to try to catch them."

Michael Schumacher Michael Schumacher was also very happy with his race at the circuit of Hungary. Schumi: "I am happy with this result, which is a good reward for all the work the team has put in over the last few months. I was pretty happy with my pace in the early stages and there was not much between mine and Kimi's, especially when you consider he was running lighter. But then the pace from the tyres got slower, even though they were still consistent. After that, it was really the pit-stops that decided it. If I could have come in at the same time or later than Kimi, then maybe, given how hard it is to overtake here, I might have been able to win.
In the closing stages, Ralf got closer but, by then, I was just looking after my tyres and I only went as quick as I needed to keep him behind me. We have made a step in the right direction. It is clear where we have to improve and we will keep on working, but we now seem to have improved our qualifying and early pace."

Rubens Barrichello The teammate of Michael Schumacher, was less succesful in Budapest.

Rubens: "I was a bit unlucky to get caught up in a big fight at the end of the straight. All of a sudden, the pack almost stopped and, as I tried to slow down, I locked a wheel and went straight into the back of Trulli. I am really sorry for the team, because today we had a better car and a much better tyre, even though there is still room to improve. Without the incident, I think we could have got both cars on the podium, because I had a good strategy."

Despite the fact that Barrichello only came over the finishline in 10th place, Ferrari is very optimistic for the next six GP's thanks to the 2th place of reigning champion Micheal Schumacher.

Fernando Alonso In the Renault stable it was very quiet after the GP. Everybody was very disappointed.

Fernando: "I think I was unlucky today. I was very surprised by
how many movements Ralf was making into the first corner, and he just didn't give me any room at all and hit the front wing: I was right up on the kerb, nearly in the grass. When the wing came off, that did quite a lot of damage to the car, so after that I knew I was just racing to get a good qualifying position in Turkey.
The positive thing to take away was the qualifying performance yesterday, honestly, because without the mistake I was competitive with Montoya on the same fuel load, and much faster than the cars around me. We would have been more competitive in a normal race, so I think we have some reasons to be positive for the races ahead."

Pat Symonds also stated after the race that Alonso's car was so much damaged that the engine had to be turned down drastically while his downforce was reduced by about 8%. In total those technical problems alone have cost the Spaniard around 1.2 seconds a lap.

Giancarlo Fisichella Giancarlo was also disappointed with the difficult weekend for his team. The Roman came in 9th, just before the Ferrari of Barrichello and teammate Alonso.

Fisichella: It was a very difficult race for us. In hindsight, this was just not our weekend – the car did not feel good as soon as we ran for the first time on Friday and, in the race, I was struggling with oversteer as well as very, very low grip. We made our choice of tyres to try and be strong at the end of the race, but I don't think it worked for us today – especially because we seemed faster in the early stages, when I was stuck behind Heidfeld.
The car was tricky to drive from the second stint onwards, and I lost the rear end a couple of times on the entry to the quick turn four – perhaps I could have scored a couple of points without that. Then the engine began losing power because of a problem with the fuel pressure, so they called me in to add some fuel and get to the finish."

We'll see how everything goes after the short vacation. At least the two Renault drivers have one as they are rather secure at Renault, contrary to many colleagues currently fighting for a race seat in 2006.