A great qualifying session by Jarno came to naught as, not for the first time, Button chose a �all or nothing� strategy which ended the race for Jarno at the first chicane.

Jarno Trulli was hit from behind by Button who was carrying far too much speed into the corner and the Italian was eliminated at the first corner. Jean Alesi's impressive run towards the points was not helped by an early second pit stop because of a suspected puncture, but he fought to finish eighth.
"I made a very good start and kept my position into the first corner, but Button hit the rear of my car as he turned in and pushed me into a spin, ending my race," the Italian complained. "He clearly, badly misjudged his braking but I was already in the corner so there was nothing I could do. I'm disappointed that again, I have been unable to finish a race through circumstances beyond my control."
Ironically, unless Button�s recent performances have got him the sack, he will be Trulli�s teammate next season.

Starting 16th on the grid, Alesi took off like a hare and was in the points at the first pitstop, but a suspected puncture ruined his race strategy and couldn�t find the performance needed to get back in the hunt for points.
�I'm unhappy with today's result as we had a good chance to finish in the points,� said Alesi, �but at least I was able to bring the car home," he said. "It was a tough race but the car was very strong and we were able to keep pace and be very competitive.
"Unfortunately I had to make an earlier than scheduled pit stop as I thought I had a puncture - although we later discovered the problem to be a flat spot. My mechanics did a great job to complete a pit stop in 10.1 seconds when I had given them very little warning that I was coming into the pits.�