Pizzonia Happy with First F1 Points

Williams driver Antonio Pizzonia was pleased with his performance at today's German Grand Prix, where he scored his first Formula One points.

"All in all I'm happy with my performance today although I got stuck in a lot of traffic during the first two stints which cost me a lot of time," said the Brazilian, standing in for the injured Ralf Schumacher, after coming home in seventh position.

"When I was on my own, I could put in some quick lap times but it wasn't enough to catch Webber in the last few laps. I still scored two points so I'm happy I could do that for the team. I think the potential is there, I just need some more race experience.

"After all, I drove my last Grand Prix more than one year ago."

Pizzonia had last raced at the 2003 British Grand Prix before being dumped by the Jaguar team. The Brazilian finished two places behind Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya, who endured a disappointing race after starting from second place of the grid.

"What a bad start I had," said Montoya. "The clutch didn't bite soon enough on the start and then I just had so much wheel spin and the car didn't go anywhere. I had no grip at all and lost a cool five positions. I also had some blistering problems on my rear tyres and it came to the point where driving the car was very, very hard since it was pointy and unpredictable.

"Actually, this prevented me from catching David Coulthard in the last part of the race. I came very close to him, but then I didn't feel I could make it. I am, of course, a bit disappointed because when you start from second you expect a podium finish. We did score some points today though which is very important for the team."