Sebastien Bourdais has admitted he found it hard to savour Toro Rosso's debut victory after he finished 18th at Monza.
Frenchman 18th as team-mate takes the plaudits
Sebastien Bourdais has admitted he found it hard to savour Toro Rosso's debut victory after his own Italian Grand Prix effectively ended before the race got underway.
Bourdais, who has yet to be confirmed with the Italian outfit for 2009, backed up team-mate Sebastian Vettel's pole position by qualifying fourth in Saturday's wet session.
However, with the returning rain boosting the team's chances of a strong result on Sunday, the Frenchman's own hopes were ruined when his Ferrari-powered STR3 refused to engage first gear on the grid.
While the rest of the field left to start the race behind the safety car, Bourdais subsequently stalled before being wheeled by mechanics back to the pitlane.
It took a few minutes to get his car going, by which time he was already one lap behind the field - led by Vettel.
"I couldn't put it in first gear, then when I dropped the clutch the car stalled," Bourdais explained. "That never happens because of the anti-stall, but this time it did.
"So I pressed the release and the release button stayed down. So we couldn't put it back into gear and we went a lap down."
Difficult
Bourdais eventually finished the race in 18th place and, with Vettel celebrating both his and the team's first win, the four-time Champ Car title winner admitted he found it hard joining in.
"It's very difficult to enjoy it with the team in these conditions," he told
autosport.com. "I'm very happy for them but my race was a non-event.
"It looks like we were pretty much set for third place. I don't know if we could have set as good a pace as Sebastian, and I don't want to sound pretentious, but we would have been pretty close."
