Holden Racing Team - Race 2 Report
22/3/2005 19:40 (Press Release) -
AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX – DAY 2
Albert Park, Melbourne
March 4, 2005
Weather: Cool, overcast 20 degrees
Race 1 (10 laps x 5.3km)
1st: Todd Kelly (HRT Commodore VZ)
3rd: Mark Skaife (HRT Commodore VZ)
Todd Kelly:
“It was good to be out in front, but it sounds like I missed all the fun that was going on back there (in the pack), so that was disappointing! I was lucky it was like that though because I got a pretty bad start, a lot worse than I wanted, but I could still get past Brighty to the first corner. From there it was just a matter of slowly edging away.
“It’s a good result but not a good indication of how the car will go when it’s pushed because I looked after it pretty well out the front so we’ll just see how it turns out tomorrow.
“Even though I looked after it, those signs of what the car is going to do still come through, and I’ve got a big list of things to go through with the guys to change the car.
“But it’s certainly not bad to do that sort of pace out there and I wasn’t going as hard as I could have pushed the car. Then again, when you do push the car, 2-3 laps later you end up going a lot slower. It will be interesting to see how it goes but I don’t think it will be too bad, we’re not in that much trouble with it.”
Mark Skaife:
“I didn’t make the best start but it wasn’t the worst one either but at the first corner I got boxed a bit wide and we had a bumping duel with a couple. Then Marcos (Ambrose) was behind me when we came through Turn 13 and Richo (Steve Richards) had a bit of a whoops, so I had a dive at him but I got held wide. I couldn’t do anything else but go to the safest spot and it held me wide going on to the straight, so I dumped a spot there.
“Then it was pretty lively over the next couple of laps, it was a bloody good race, actually, that first part. I could see Todd escaping and I’m sure he was happy to see what was going on behind and then as it turned out everyone reached their performance level. Steve was battling for brakes and so was Bright, and Marcos and I were able to sneak past so it was a really good race.
“Our cars (Skaife’s and Kelly’s) aren’t really that similar, we’ve got some suspension geometry differences and some shock differences.
“In terms of flow my car is not too bad, I thought at the end of the race it was probably stronger than it was at the start so I probably tamed the car off a bit too much from qualifying and made it a bit too lazy at the front. Having said that, it probably looked after its tyres a bit better like that and tyre management for the weekend is pretty important.”
Release Date: 04/03/2005
Holden Racing Team
|
|
