Speed Rues Slow Start

Speed was on pole and came across to the right at the start to cover Bruni, but was unable to get in front of either Bruni or Jose Maria Lopez, which probably cost him the race.

"We had a great launch from the grid," Speed noted, "but the clutch started slipping as we got away and that was a bit of a problem - this track is just impossible to overtake on unless the guy in front of you has a real problem, so there wasn't a lot I could do."

Bruni was able to pull out a large gap in the early stages of the race, setting up a solid performance. The only chance Speed had of making up ground was at his pitstop.

Speed saw it this way: "We had a great in lap and pitstop ­ we took five seconds out of Bruni's lead, but he was nine seconds ahead before his stop and that was just too much to catch up.

"And even if I did then I would have had to get past him, which was not going to happen. So I'm pretty happy with my race overall."

The result puts the American in third place in the championship behind Heikki Kovalainen on twenty points and Bruni on eighteen, a fact which cheered Speed after the race.
 
"I'm quite happy actually - I'm only just behind Kovalainen in the championship, so we've just got to keep pushing and we've just got to keep taking points."