Bruni happy to celebrate birthday with race finish
Wilux Minardi Cosworth driver, Gianmaria Bruni, celebrated his 23rd birthday in satisfying style today, finishing 14th in the Grand Prix of Europe and leading teammate, Zsolt Baumgartner, home to the chequered flag, the result providing the Faenza squad with a solid, two-car finish.
“I’m satisfied with the result, as I had to try and maintain good lap times, but also conserve the rear tyres – if I pushed too hard I risked blistering them,” Bruni said. “In fact, I’m happy with the tyres Bridgestone has provided us with this weekend. If we had had a better balance in the car this afternoon, I think I could have made better use of the tyres and we might have had a stronger result. Even so, I am very pleased to have finished the race.”
Meanwhile, teammate Baumgartner did have the satisfaction, of setting the faster race lap and both drivers adopted similar pit-stop strategies, each calling in three times for fuel and tyres in the course of the 60-lap race.
“Generally, we had a good, solid race today. The first stint was difficult, because the car was really oversteering, but then we altered the differential and the tyre pressures at the first stop, and I also adjusted the brake balance. After that, the car just got better every lap and was really good in the last two stints,” Zsolt said. “I could go quicker and quicker and was able to bring the gap down to Gimmi. The biggest problem for me this afternoon was actually the amount of time I lost with blue flags letting other drivers through. I’m very happy that we had a reliable car in the race and that I was able to take the chequered flag today. I’d also like to wish Gimmi a happy birthday – it was good to present him with his birthday cake.” “It’s always good to get two cars home,” added Paul Stoddart. “Both Gimmi and Zsolt did all that could be asked of them today, and overall, it has been a reasonable weekend for the Minardi team here at the Nurburgring.”
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