The Hindu : Sport / Racing : Motor : Staying positive

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 12, 2005

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Sport - Racing : Motor

Staying positive

It's round eight and we are in North America for the next two races. The first leg of the European circuit is over and though I haven't performed well we continue to remain positive. The last two races in Monaco and Nurburgring were very disappointing. In Nurburgring I made a few mistakes in the qualifying session and had to start from the back of the grid. However, I feel we had a good start in the race and after the first lap I had managed to gain a few places due to an incident in the first corner, which saw a few cars and drivers lose out.

In the past two weeks, both my team-mate Tiago Monteiro and I escaped from the bustling paddock of the Canadian Grand Prix and went to Lake Sacacomie. It's a really quiet and peaceful place out in the wild. Since this place is at a high altitude, the air is thinner thus making training more challenging. We did mountain biking, kayaking, rafting, hiking and other fitness sessions to prepare for this race. And on most occasions this routine was followed six hours a day.

The Gilles Villeneuve Circuit in Montreal is a very high-speed circuit where the cars can reach a speed of about 340 Km/h. It's a lot like the circuit in Australia but a bit narrower. It has its mixture of long fast straights and tight slow corners, which allows for overtaking. The track, is however, very dusty and slippery and you need to use a lot of kerbs in order to get a fast time. I have never raced here before unlike my team-mate but it seems like an easy circuit to get used to. The good thing about North America over Europe is that everything over here is in abundance. The hotels and the rooms we stay in here are bigger. Almost everything over here is on a larger scale, which makes you love this continent. I've had a good time so far in Canada and I hope this weekend is good too.

At the moment we are still struggling with the car and our aim for the next few races will be to finish the race. Trevor Carlin who was our team's sporting director has stepped down from his position. I am sure he has his own reason for doing so but I don't know why. This obviously does not help our cause. However, he has shown us the right direction and we as a team need to make sure that we follow that path. In the past Jordan has performed comparatively well in Canada and we would like to keep that trend going.

Both Alonso and Raikkonen look in a different league this season and once again will be the drivers to look out for in this race. I am sure Raikkonen will be raring to go after his misfortune in the European Grand Prix.

TCM

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