De la Rosa crashes out in Spain
29th April, 2001

It should have been his big comeback, but it turned out to be a very short race for Jaguar driver Pedro de la Rosa in front of his home fans. Having qualified 20th for the Spanish GP, he crashed into Heinz-Harald Frentzen's Jordan on lap 6 and ended up in the gravel.

"It was a racing accident pure and simple," he commented, "but of course that doesn't stop me from being very disappointed. Heinz-Harald came from a long way back at Turn 8 I think, and when I saw him in my mirrors I moved to the right of the track. But he overshot the corner and the next thing I knew his car made contact with mine, and we went off the track together. It's a real shame because I had moved up from 20th to 16th position and I wasn't pushing hard ... I wanted to finish the race."

Eddie Irvine was also frustrated by his fortunes. After gaining four places at the start the Ulsterman was running 8th when he had to park his car beside the track, after his let go. "Despite my exit from the race, this was our most positive overall team performance this season," the Ulsterman said, looking on the positive side, afterwards.

"The car felt pretty good throughout the race and I didn't suffer from too many problems, until the engine decided to let go. The team radioed me about 25 laps from the end and informed me of an oil problem. I used less revs in the hope that it would go away, but it was no surprise when the car stopped. The rear of the car felt loose throughout the whole race, but I had this problem under control. Again it's a shame to see valuable points so close and yet so far."