Second not good enough for Todt

Ferrari celebrated a long-awaited return to the podium in the Canadian Grand Prix – but it was not enough for team boss Jean Todt.

Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello finished second and third respectively in Montreal but Todt’s celebrations were tempered by their defeat by McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen.

He said: “This is an encouraging result, but we must not forget that our aim is to take the win, which escaped us again.

“Having said that, prior to the race, I would have happily settled for both drivers on the podium.”

Todt’s two drivers are taking encouragement from their efforts, with world champion Schumacher hoping his second podium of the season marks a change in fortunes for Ferrari.

He said: “If you look through the race, at certain stages we had the performance to follow and to go a reasonable pace.

“At the beginning of the race, we were clearly not competitive considering the level of fuel we had but then after the first stop I thought my pace was quite good.

“That was not so obvious on Friday, not at all actually, and we developed the car very well.

“We just still have to work on the package to get it right at every moment in track condition.”

Barrichello feels his hard-earned third place was just reward for his determination after starting from the pit lane.

The Brazilian suffered a gearbox failure just before he was to set a qualifying lap on Saturday but his never-say-die attitude helped him battle through an eventful race to claim six points.

He said: “I think in life you have to expect everything. If I didn’t expect to be on the podium I might as well have gone home on Saturday.

“On Saturday it was very depressing in a way because I had my problem but there was still one more chance.

“If that had happened on the first lap of the race it would have been even worse, so it happened at a time when I was still able to recover and I guess third place is a really good compliment.”

Barrichello’s cause was helped by problems for many drivers ahead of him, with the Renault pair of Giancarlo Fisichella and Fernando Alonso both losing victory.

Fisichella suffered hydraulic problems which put him out of the race while team-mate Alonso also saw his race end when out front, the world championship leader crashing into a concrete wall.

Alonso was not the only driver to make a costly mistake yesterday. Jenson Button’s run to his first podium of the season was ended when his BAR-Honda bounced across the kerbs at the final chicane and into the tyre wall.

Juan Pablo Montoya’s elimination was even more avoidable. The McLaren driver left the pits despite a red light and he was excluded after fighting with team-mate Raikkonen for the victory.

Felipe Massa was fourth for Sauber while Mark Webber gave Williams fifth place and Ralf Schumacher earnt sixth for Toyota. Scotsman David Coulthard’s consistency helped the Red Bull driver to seventh with team-mate Christian Klien eighth.