Q+A with Jarno Trulli

It was a difficult Monaco Grand Prix for Panasonic Toyota racing driver Jarno Trulli. The Italian, who won the race in 2004, was only able to finish in 13th position, one place behind team mate Timo Glock. Trulli discusses his Monaco race and also looks forward to the Canadian Grand Prix in 12 days.

"Of course we were expecting more. It was a disappointing result and a difficult race because things just didn't go well for us. It was looking okay early in the race when I was fighting for the top six but after my first pit stop the race started to drift away from us. It's a shame because I enjoy driving at Monaco and I have usually gone really well there, but this one didn't exactly go according to plan."

"We started the race on standard wet tyres but the rain kept falling and this made the track very difficult to drive as there was no grip, so we made the decision to switch to extreme wets. That went really well at first because I was quick and I did some good overtaking manoeuvres, even though I was still losing time in traffic. But then the rain stopped and it was hard work on those tyres as the circuit was more suited to standard wets. When it came to my scheduled stop for fuel we went back to the standard wets but at that stage I had lost a lot of time and, even if you are quick, it is impossible to overtake in Monaco. The track continued to dry and eventually the dry option tyres were possible; with those I was able to set some quite fast lap times at the end but it was too late."

"On Thursday morning I made a mistake and hit the wall on the exit of Portiers. It was a light touch but enough to break the suspension. In the second session I had a mechanical problem so had to stop and change part of the floor, which was damaged by the kerbs. We lost some track time repairing the car. In general I didn't feel completely confident with the car on Friday and even on Saturday morning I was struggling a bit; generally I was missing bite and grip."

"Obviously I eventually went through into Q3, did my best and ended up eighth on the grid but I couldn't drive the way I like to at Monaco. The mix of problems I had were all related to grip and I didn't have the feel I wanted from the car. I was still able to compete but I wasn't 100% happy or able to push as hard as I wanted to, and in Monaco if you are missing a bit of confidence you lose a couple of tenths."

"I must say I was pleased to get through. I pushed myself, even though I didn't have the confidence I wanted in the car, and I did it. I was happy with my lap and satisfied with the result. I think I performed well and eighth was a good place to start from. We should have been able to score points, especially as I had a competitive strategy but unfortunately the weather caused problems for us on Sunday."

"Montreal is a good place to go and there is always a good vibe. Monaco is a one-off race and the Montreal circuit has a very different layout. You need much less downforce in Canada and the brakes are very important there. We tried to do some Canada work at the recent Paul Ricard test but unfortunately the last day was rained out. The team obviously has data from previous races there so we will be all right, but it would have been better if we had been able to run a full day of preparation."

"Not really because Monaco is unique and the situation on Sunday afternoon was quite unusual, so I don't think we will have the same issues in Canada. Even in the rain early in the race we were in a pretty good position so we should not be downhearted and I will go to Canada with optimism as usual."