Darren Manning Mexico City column

We had a very fast car all weekend and we set the pace in most of the practices. The altitude and the medium-downforce nature of the track seemed to suit the Reynards, but I made a mistake during final qualifying by asking for a change that made us slower. Otherwise I think we had a car good enough for the front row or the pole.

Oct 19, 2003, 11:01 PM

I got a tremendous start from sixth place and came into the first corner in third place on the outside. But on the exit Tiago Monteiro just stuck his nose into my back wheel and put me off. That basically spoiled the whole weekend for us.

I managed to get going again and was still very fast, especially on new tyres and full tanks. But we bent a front endplate, which created a lot of drag on the straight and I couldn't get a run on anyone. All I could do was stay with them for the pitstops.

Then Adrian Fernandez made a stupid move into Turn 6; he just stuffed into the side of me. So I suppose to get ninth place after all that was pretty good really. I was so upset that I wasn't up front that I just put on a charge.

It's a shame really because two mistakes by other drivers turned into two collisions and that's what kept us off the podium.