Baumgartner Happy to Complete Race Distance

Minardi's Zsolt Baumgartner was happy to make it to the end of Sunday's San Marino Grand Prix, the fourth round of the Championship.

"I'm happy to have finished the race and pleased that we had a reliable car today," said the Hungarian driver after the race. "There were no problems and no mistakes, and I now hope we can build on this and start to generate some momentum in the coming races.

"We need to work some more on our new aerodynamic package, but I think it is promising and will become better with a little more development time. I want to thank all the guys on the team, who did a fantastic job this weekend and got through a huge amount of work."

Baumgartner, in his sixth Formula One Grand Prix, went on to finish in 15th position, over four laps behind race winner Michael Schumacher. His Minardi teammate Gianmaria Bruni failed to finish, going out of the race with a problem in the brakes.

"It just wasn't our day," said Bruni. "I felt a problem developing with the brake balance about seven laps after my first stop and came into the pits. Although the team couldn't find anything wrong, they decided to retire the car as a precaution.

"I'm disappointed, but now it is best just to focus on the next race, in Barcelona."