It was a bitter day at the Nurburgring today where team McLaren Mercedes drivers Kimi Raikkonen and David Coulthard were both forced to retire from the European Grand Prix with engine failures.
Kimi's race finished almost immediately after his first pit stop on lap 10, the young Finn really challenging Michael Schumacher at the front of the field at the end. Naturally he was bitterly disappointed with the result and while happy with increased performance, he remains very frustrated by their lack of reliability.
“Obviously I'm extremely frustrated and disappointed. I was at the front after getting past Sato and Trulli on the first lap and there was no doubt that things were looking good,” Kimi said. “We are making progress, but it's clear that we have to improve our reliability dramatically."
Meanwhile, teammate David Coulthard, who started from last place on the grid following an engine change after yesterday's first qualifying session, charged hard on the opening lap to move up to ninth place by the end of the first lap. Sadly, he was forced to give up the fight on lap 26. Working on a two stop strategy, things definitely looked on track for a points finish….
"The race was going well. I had a good start from the back of the grid making the most of other people getting in trouble on the first lap and went from 20th to ninth,” he said. “As we were on a two stop strategy the car was heavy with fuel, but I believe we would have been in a good position to score some points. It's disappointing and nobody in the team is enjoying the situation at the moment, but we will all continue to work hard to make things better, and I'm confident that we will fight back.""The reliability problems we are experiencing at the moment are linked with our efforts to increase the team's competitiveness as fast as possible,” added Ron Dennis. “Our qualifying and the early part of the race certainly demonstrated that we are getting there. Of course it's painful not to finish races, but the most constructive way forward for the team is to analyse the problems and execute the engineering solutions.""A disappointing outcome to the race. Kimi and David did everything right and were in good positions during the opening laps,” added Norbert Haug. “The engines will go back to Mercedes-Ilmor tonight to investigate the source of the failures which we suspect was a problem with a batch of pistons from which all the engines for this race have been built."
;)
