In the record books again

On the Monday afternoon following the US GP I had to endure a three hour stop at Washington DC's rather dreary airport. With the crucial England v Croatia football match conspicuous by its absence from any convenient TV screen, there wasn't much to do. So I used up some time by munching into a rather tasty cheeseburger at TGI Friday's, as a sort of farewell to North America after 12 or so days of an unhealthy diet.

Motor racing was far from my mind, but after paying my bill and heading to the exit I noticed a familiar figure tucking into a plate of something and chips. Travelling on his own, and completely incognito, was a genuine Grand Prix driver. And not just any old driver, but one of the unsung heroes of the previous days encounter at Indianapolis. I'd come from Chicago and was on my way to Brussels, while he'd started at Indy and was en route to Vienna. The chances of meeting were slim, but here we were. Zsolt Baumgartner, I presume!

Eighth place might not be much to shout about, but for Zsolt and Minardi that result meant a lot. It was achieved mainly by keeping going, and only when Giancarlo Fisichella hit trouble near the end did he edge into the top eight. But a points finish is a points finish, and it says a lot for Zsolt that he also managed to get safely to the flag in Monaco (in ninth) and Montreal, two of the toughest races on the calendar.

The stats also make for interesting reading. His best lap was only 1s off that of Jordan's Nick Heidfeld, and incredibly less than just 2s off the likes of David Coulthard and Mark Webber. Considering the equipment at his disposal - a general lack of bhp and state-of-the-art gizmos etc - that was not a bad effort.

No one's suggesting that Zsolt is a future World Champion, but the guy deserves a little credit for doing the best he can with what he has at his disposal. He's a smart and very pleasant chap, and Paul Stoddart and the Minardi team have taken to him. Some say it's no coincidence that he's been bringing the car safely home of late, as he tends to use his head. In contrast team-mate Gimmi Bruni took a lot of flak in Indy for abandoning his car after the first corner shunt when it was still capable of getting back to the pits.

Zsolt thoroughly enjoyed his Indy experience: "I think it was a good race compared to the lap times we did on Friday and Saturday," he said. "I was quite consistent, and my best lap was 0.8s quicker than my qualifying lap, when I made a mistake, so I was happy with that.

"I could do quite a lot of clear laps, and during the race I was not affected quite so much by the blue flags. It's easier than some other circuits. I could also keep the tyre temperatures cool, and we didn't get a nasty balance on the car. In the end we had not a bad performance. I was thinking that it would be very difficult..."

Zsolt's first problem was to get through the first corner incident that claimed his team-mate.

"I was lucky. I went on the first corner next to Gimmi, and then the accident with Klien and Massa happened. Pantano made a big brake to avoid it, and I braked massively as well. I slightly touched his rear, but there was no damage on my car, just a bit on the nose. Gimmi tried to overtake Pantano on the grass and they touched each other. I was really lucky that they went the other way. That was the most risky part. I was very worried on the first laps with the safety car because whenever we approached that corner there were pieces everywhere."

As he was at the back of the field Zsolt was able to react quicker than anybody else when Ralf Schumacher's crash brought out the second safety car. He was in and out of the pits in no time at all, but because of his unfamiliarity with the circumstances he didn't go as fast as he could to claim a place in the queue.

"We were the first people to come into the pits, so it was a quick reaction from the team. I just came onto the straight when it happened and they said, 'Pit, pit.' It was not planned. The guys were out there really quickly and they did a really quick stop.

"The problem was that there was a bit of a misunderstanding. I went out and caught up the safety car in Turn 3, and it was a bit of a shit situation for me. I'd never had this before and we were talking on the radio. I thought I should keep behind it, but they told me to drive by.

"Then I did a slow lap until I caught up everyone. If I'd come out and done a good lap I would have been fifth or something, and it would have been nice to stay there for a few laps behind the safety car."

He went on to score his point, putting his name in the record books alongside the likes of Alex Zanardi, Jan Magnussen, Gabriele Tarquini, Johnny Cecotto, Olivier Grouillard, Pedro Lamy and others who scored just once, albeit in the days when you had to make the top six. At the flag he was three laps down on winner Michael Schumacher, so it was hardly a glorious eighth place.

"That's true. But as Paul always said to me, you have to keep on the track. It was still a bit difficult, and I'm very happy that we've finished a fourth race in a row with no technical problems. The car is more reliable than it was at the beginning of the season. I thought it would get better, because as we test so much less than everyone else, the problems come up in the first couple of races."

There's no doubt as to who will get the biggest cheer at the Hungaroring in August...