By SAUBER PETRONAS (25/4/2004)
April 25 2004

Team SAUBER PETRONAS drivers Giancarlo Fisichella and Felipe Massa finished ninth and 10th respectively in today´s San Marino Grand Prix in Imola. Giancarlo Fisichella (Driver):

We had very good race pace today, and sometimes I was quicker than Kimi, especially at the end. It´s a pity I lost the place to him. I got held up by one of the Minardis in the final corner at a point when Kimi had fresher tyres, and with the better traction out of the corner he got a run at me and overtook on the straight. But I am happy with our speed compared to his and very satisfied that we have made such a big improvement since Bahrain. If we can keep that up we can fight for points a lot more.

Felipe Massa (Driver):

I think this was a positive race for us. I made a good start and the car was very good in the first two stints. I don´t know why, but it was not quite the same in the final one. It was just very tricky to do competitive lap times and I struggled to keep my rhythm. But we have improved the car, for sure, and really I think it might even have been possible to do two stops rather than three because my Bridgestone tyres were so consistent today.

Peter Sauber (Team Principal):

Even if Kimi is not the overall benchmark at present it was a pleasure to see Giancarlo fight with him throughout the race. Unfortunately the final championship point went to Kimi by the narrowest of margins in the end but overall we achieved a good result after starting from a difficult position, and both Giancarlo and Felipe were able to finish ahead of the Toyotas and the Jaguars.

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