After qualifying
on Saturday, Max had said that his third starting spot would give
him an advantage going into the first corner at the start.
His words were quite prophetic.
As a number of the other drivers stumbled through the corner, ran
into each other and fell off the road, Max made a superb move and
took the lead of the race.
He held that position for the first 20 laps, first holding off
Alex Tagliani and then Memo Gidley.
When the Arciero Blair recently switched to the Ford Cosworth
there were no 2001 specification engines available so they are
running the 2000 spec engines. They don't have quite the horsepower
that this year's motors have.
This made Max's run in the lead that much more impressive. It
also showed that his crew had given him a great handling car to
drive.
Unfortunately another driver's error erased any chance of a top
finish.
At the end of lap 32 Max made his way into the pits for his first
scheduled stop. He was unable to get into this pit box though. Bruno
Junquiera had run into the back of Christian Fittipaldi and
Junquiera's damaged car was blocking Max's way. Max had to come back
to the pits a second time.
By the time he rejoined the race he had dropped from second to
19th position. A malfunctioning pit lane speed limiter also
contributed to his woes, causing him to have to make two drive
through penalties.
His opportunity for a second top-five finish in a row was gone.
After the race Max was still upbeat though. "Today's race
was good in the beginning," he said. "It was good to have
the Arciero-Blair team lead our first race The team is working
better and better together at every race. Today we just had bad luck
and I know that's racing."
RACE
REPORT
