Renault angered by Trulli mistake...

[Senna 0]

From F1-Live.com:

Renault angered by Trulli mistake

'He left the door completely open. Unbelievable!'

Jarno Trulli defended well until the final lap

Renault chief Pat Symonds said he would have a word with Jarno Trulli after the Italian driver handed a podium finish to Ferrari rival Rubens Barrichello in Sunday's French Grand Prix.

Trulli looked set to make it a happy afternoon for the Anglo- French squad by finishing a strong third behind his second-placed Spanish team- mate Fernando Alonso on the team's home ground at Magny-Cours.

But it was Ferrari who had the last laugh when German race winner Michael Schumacher's team-mate Rubens Barrichello slipped past Trulli on the very last lap to steal the double podium for the Italian giants instead.

And angry technical boss Symonds said: "I simply can't understand something like that. It looked like he left the door completely open. Unbelievable! I shall be talking to him to see what the problem was."

Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn, understandably, had the opposite emotion and praised Brazilian Barrichello for hounding Trulli into a mistake after a strong race that saw him fight through from 10th on the grid.

"I said to him four or five laps from the end 'it would look really sweet to have you on the rostrum today Rubens'," said Brawn. "That is what he did and that was fantastic!"

Trulli's mistake could not have come at a worse time as he is currently undergoing negotiations for a contract renewal and had set himself in good stead by securing the team's only victory of the season in Monaco in May.

He remains their top scoring driver with 46 points, 13 more than Alonso, but would have been just one point behind third-placed BAR-Honda rival Jenson Button in the championship table had he not been passed by Barrichello.

"I am gutted for myself and the team to have lost third place at the very end of the race," said Trulli. "I defended against Rubens as much as possible but on the last lap he was quicker on the exit of turn 13."

"He passed me under braking for the next corner - I tried to close the door, but couldn't. At the moment all I feel is disappointment, but I will have to get over it and come back stronger at the next races."

It was a good day all round for Ferrari as a mid-race call for a different strategy from Brawn, based on a suggestion from team race strategist Luca Baldisserri, saw Schumacher overhaul Alonso for victory.

When asked if Renault had thought they could win, however, Symonds admitted: "We could see in our pre-race simulations that our only chance of beating them today was if they got held up in the first stint. They didn't."

"We quickly worked out they were on the four stop when we did our fuel times at the pit stops. We needed 17 seconds on them at the last stop and I knew we weren't going to get that. But it was still a good race."

Renault strengthened their position as best of the rest' with a 13- point haul compared to closest chasers BAR's four but they have now collected just half of the 158-point haul that Ferrari have this season.

[webber 0]

i dont think that Trulli handed it to RB. its more like RB just burst his way throw.

[kiko01 0]

It was a mistake and costed the team a double podium finish in their home so i understand they are angry :evil: but i think that they must be still talking about JT

[JetEngineCom 0]

it was apparent from the moment rubens passed DC that his intention would be the podium. bcoz of his dismal performance against MS, most people tend to write off rubens as a lousy driver to their own detriment. the germany gp 2000 when the brazilian moved from last to first, and silverstone last year should have taught drivers not to take RB for granted. In the near memory, RB has been the unheralded overtaking guru of f1 even though he is not as noisy or dramatic about it as either montoya or sato. RB did to JT what JPM should have done to MS in indianapolis 2003. And if the public expected the 6-time world champion to cave in to the pressure, who was JT not to. STOP BASHING JT. HE IS HUMAN!!!

[ecapdeville 0]

I

[Senna 0]

Apart from that was a great race for close wheel-to wheel racing and this race was completely devoid of that bar one or two moves, one of which should never have happened had Jarno stayed awake. In short: there are very few similarities if any, oh yes there is one: they were both F1 races in which F1 cars were involved racing around an F1 circuit...