Trulli Laments Lost Podium

Ferrari driver Barrichello was forced to pit on the first lap after he made contact with Trulli's Toyota at the first corner of Sunday's race.

Trulli could continue in the race but his Toyota's diffuser was heavily damaged and so his car lacked downforce during the race. Despite that, Trulli managed to bring the car home in fourth place.

The Italian was pleased with the result, but claimed the incident had cost him a podium finish.

"At one was stage it looked like my race was over," said Trulli. "First Montoya pushed me after the start and then Barrichello hit me from behind under braking for the first corner. He broke my diffuser and I lost 20 points of downforce in my car.

"But I managed to bring the car home in the points, finished fourth, so I'm really, really happy. But I can see another podium gone away from me.

"I was talking to the engineers all the time, as the car kept changing all the time. So sometimes it was understeering, sometimes it was oversteering and I got very confused. At the end I just decided to shut up and try to drive it, because I didn't know what was wrong with it.

"Only at the end of the race the engineers told me what happened. And when I stopped I saw the damage and the diffuser was completely broken."

Despite Trulli's misfortunes, Toyota scored their third podium of the season thanks to Ralf Schumacher finishing in third place.

Trulli was happy for his teamamte.

"I'm happy for him, because he really deserved a result like this. It's good the team has scored so many points and he's got his first podium."