I Could have Won, Says Trulli

Trulli, starting from fourth place on the grid, was penalised with a drive-through after his mechanics failed to leave the track 15 seconds before the start of the formation lap.

The penalty vanished all of Trulli's hopes of fighting at the top, but the Toyota driver claimed he could have scored a podium or even a victory.

In the end he had to settle for eighth place.

"After an afternoon like that, a point is certainly better than nothing, but it could have been much more," said Trulli. "Unfortunately we had a problem firing up the engine on the grid and because of those few seconds we earned a drive through penalty that completely spoiled my chances.

"I pitted earlier than we intended because I was stuck in traffic and after that my race was fairly anonymous because it is nearly impossible to overtake here. But I kept pushing, pushing and pushing and it paid off when Raikkonen had his problem at the very end.

"It's a pity because otherwise after such a good qualifying and start we would certainly have made the podium and I could even have won. Still, given everything that happened I'll settle for 8th place."

Teammate Ralf Schumacher had an even worse day, hitting Fernando Alonso at the start of the race and then spinning off with 36 laps to go.

"This was a very difficult day for me," admitted Schumacher. "I made a reasonably good start but as I went into turn one I was very close to Alonso when all of a sudden he came to an almost complete stop. Because I was so close behind him, I couldn't see what was happening in front so I became involved in the accident.

"It's a pity, but I really couldn't do anything about it. That meant I had to pit to replace my nose, leaving me over a minute adrift. From there the afternoon was always going to be difficult but I pushed as hard as I could, gaining a few places.

"Then I was close behind Sato when I lost grip at the front, understeered straight on, hit the kerb and that was it. We'll hope for a better weekend next time."