Tracy puts Brands loss behind him

Having been quickest through free practice and then setting his first pole position on a road course since 1994 at Brands, the Player's Forsythe driver was forced to retire with gearbox failure while fighting for the lead with eventual winner Sebastien Bourdais.

"I've already put the Brands Hatch race out of mind," said Tracy, "and the fact that Team Player's is going to be racing again in just a few days means that we all have to quickly focus our attention on the next race.

"All good things have to come to an end sometime, and that's the way I look at the end of our three-race winning streak. Over the course of a long season, you're going to have some good luck and bad, and the important thing is to try to limit the bad days to a bare minimum."

Tracy is one of several drivers pleased to see the return of old rival Alex Zanardi to the cockpit in a demonstration run before the start of the race. The universally popular Italian lost his legs in an accident at the German venue in 2001 and is to complete 13 laps before the start of this year's race - the same number of laps left to complete in the race in which he crashed.

"I'm sure it's going to be very emotional, especially with Alex being on hand. It will be great to see him," said Tracy.