Macau Grand Prix winner Lucas di Grassi thankful for safety car

Di Grassi thankful for safety car from Autosport By Jonathan Noble November 20th 2005, 11:42 GMT Macau Grand Prix winner Lucas di Grassi has admitted that he would have had no chance of winning the blue riband event if it was not for the late-race Safety Car. The Manor Motorsport driver, who is the first Brazilian to win at Macau since Mauricio Gugelmin in 1985, managed to overtake Robert Kubica two laps from home after diving past immediately after a Safety Car restart. And having lost the lead just a few laps before the Safety Car to Kubica, whose car improved over the course of the race, di Grassi said that there would have been no chance to respond to his Polish rival without the outside intervention. "I think my car was a bit different to Robert's," said di Grassi. "There were a lot of reasons for that, like the engines and wings, but it meant we were quicker on the straights while I was a bit slower in the middle sector. "But you cannot overtake on the mountain section, you can only overtake on the straights, so if there was not the Safety Car then I don't think I could have caught Robert. He was really fast. "After the Safety Car I did a good restart, got a good tow and pushed for one lap. And when I saw on the first corner of the last lap that he could not make a move, then I was pretty comfortable because it is quite hard to overtake in the mountains. So I pushed to the end and it was a great win." Kubica backed up di Grassi's views - claiming that he was sure of the win before the Safety Car was called out just five laps from home. "We struggled a bit in the beginning of the race when we had cold tyres, and we knew that we didn't have enough speed on the straights," said this year's World Series by Renault champion. "So we were trying to make the car as fast as possible in the corners. "We had done it (had the race won) but unfortunately the Safety Car came at the wrong moment. If it had come even one lap earlier probably, it would have been much easier for me to overtake Lucas. "There was nothing more I could do at the restart, because we were much slower on the straight, so if there was not a Safety Car then I think it was done. But here in Macau it has been shown that not always the fastest guy wins the race."