The European Grand Prix will mark Giancarlo Fisichella's 100th race in Formula One, which means it's time to look back and decide - what was the best race? What was the worst? How about his teammates? And besides, how did Fisico's last month go by? This is how it looks through Fisico's visor...

It doesn't seem that long ago that I made my Grand Prix debut with the Minardi team at Melbourne in 1996, and it seems even harder to believe that this weekend's European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring will be my 100th Grand Prix!

Looking back over my Formula One career and the past 99 Grands Prix, it is quite difficult to choose the best one. One that sticks out in my mind is the 1997 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa. I was driving for Jordan, and it was the first time that I finished second. I also made a great overtaking move on Jean (Alesi, in the Benetton), who is one of my Formula One heroes.

In contrast, when I was at Benetton and leading the European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring in 1999, my headrest came off and I spun out of the race. That was my worst moment - a very low point in my career, as I felt that the winner's place was mine.

Looking back at my teammates, I think Alex (Wurz) and I had a very good working relationship together. We were always very correct and fair with each other but also we worked together (at Benetton) for three years and understood each other well and enjoyed each other's company away from racing.

Of more recent teammates, and although Jenson (Button) and I only worked together for one season, we too had a good understanding and worked well together. My current teammate Takuma had a difficult start to his F1 career, but I can tell you that he is a very honest guy and we have a good relationship. In fact, I was quite touched when my manager Gianpaolo (Matteucci) told me that Takuma's girlfriend Chihara was cheering for me once she knew that Takuma was not injured, after Nick's Sauber crashed heavily into him at the Austrian Grand Prix.

One thing that has continued to improve in Formula One over the years is the level of safety and that was certainly put to the test with Taku's accident and the first corner crash at Melbourne. I was therefore very pleased when I read that Professor Sid Watkins had been honoured by the British Queen with an O.B.E. (Order of the British Empire) in recognition of his work on Formula One over the past two decades. We may not say it often, but we drivers certainly appreciate his work on our behalf.

Still, many of us drivers would probably agree that, if given the choice, we would like to race without electronic driver aids or grooved tyres; then it would be easier for a driver's talent to make the difference in how competitive he really is. And, I can honestly tell you that with each race mile I cover my motivation and hunger to achieve my first Grand Prix win is stronger than ever and I will never give up on my quest to become World Champion!

However, without the opportunity to compete in Formula One with Minardi in 1996, who knows what direction my career path would have taken. I will always be grateful to Gian Carlo Minardi - a man who I consider a real gentleman - because without him, a lot of things in my past and present would not have been possible.

Therefore, I have been quite concerned to read about the recent financial problems again facing the Minardi team. If they were unable to continue in Formula One, it would be very sad and the only thing I can do is to wish them every success in resolving the current problems.

Minardi had a fantastic support in Australia, when Mark (Webber) come fifth. Such a surprising result was great for Formula One, just as the World Cup is currently enjoying a lot of surprises - although personally I did not like the latest result of South Korea beating the favourites, Italy!

Yes, it's a great result for the South Koreans and for football in general, but it was simply disastrous for us Italians - and I am very disappointed and bitter about the treatment we got. They have annulled us five regular goals which I think was wrong, and I also think Francesco Totti was unjustly expelled from the pitch in the last game. South Korea played well and they were very fast, but we absolutely deserved to win! Oh well, I'll now support Brazil and work on upholding my country's honour with Championship points this weekend.

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Taking fifth place at Montreal was fantastic, after the same result in Monaco and Austria. Someone at the team told me it's called a hat-trick, but frankly I don't mind what it is called - it just felt fantastic to be in a point-scoring position in the last three Grands Prix and move the team into sixth place in the Constructors' Championship.

There is really nothing like having a string of good results to boost morale and motivate everyone and that has certainly been the case during the past few weeks at Jordan. It certainly fuels our appetite to achieve more success and at the same time it increases our level of expectation, so the pressure never eases.

Not surprisingly, after qualifying sixth - my best grid slot this season, I felt that a podium finish in the Canadian Grand Prix was a real possibility. But when the red lights went out those aspirations evaporated as I was left struggling to engage the clutch, which cost me a couple of places. Still, the car felt well-balanced in the race and that gave me the confidence to push hard through the entire race.

Again it was good to be competitive against the Saubers, Renaults and McLarens and for sure I was quicker than Kimi (Raikkonen) during the final stages but I decided to stay in fifth place rather than risk trying to overtake him. It was also good to see Takuma finish in the top ten - it shows that our reliability is improving race by race.

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Monaco and Montreal are technically demanding circuits not only from a driver's perspective but they are also tough on chassis, engines, brakes and tyres alike, so I was really very happy with the handling and reliability of my EJ12. Of course we still need to improve more if we are to consistently challenge the Saubers, Renaults and McLarens.

I was disappointed not to have the new Honda engine for Montreal, after I had tested it at Silverstone the week before. The Honda engineers felt the reliability was still questionable and so we had to wait until that is resolved. However, the engine we used in Canada was an interim unit using development parts from the delayed higher spec unit on a version of the Austrian "qualifying" engine. It was the most powerful Honda V10 to date with more revs available and more power. Hopefully I will not have to wait much longer for the new power unit and then show just what I can achieve for Jordan Honda this season!

Unlike Canada, where the weekend is relatively quiet and there aren't many sponsors events, Monaco was a very hectic weekend. It began when I took part in a Charity Pitstop Challenge against Edmund Irvine Snr, who was standing in for Eddie. Edmund and I had to change a couple of tyres on a couple of F1 show cars against each other, and the loser would have to donate $10,000 dollars to the event's charity - the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund (benefits families and employees, contract workers and others lost in the September 11th attack on the World Trade Centre).

I certainly could not afford to be beaten and so your truly raised his hand first, having completed the job in 27 seconds... OK, so perhaps I need a little more practice with the team but it was still four seconds ahead of Irvine Snr!

Grand Prix weekends are always hectic but at Monaco the schedule is even tighter and it is always difficult to fit all the engagements in. Yet somehow we do and still some of us manage to get relatively early nights in bed - crucial if you want to be 100 percent fit for qualifying and the Grand Prix itself. I love sleeping on my boat with my family as I just find it so relaxing, so I took the opportunity of sleeping on it during the Grand Prix weekend. It was also great to be able to entertain my family and friends on it and spend some time during Friday before the second practice session on Saturday morning.

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I love racing at Monaco - it's a great challenge and a thrill to feel the car sliding underneath you on the absolute limit with very little room for error. It is also a fantastic feeling going flat through the tunnel. On the TV screens the corner looks like one long sweeping bend but when you approach it flat out, speeds approaching 280 km/h, the angle appears much tighter. Also, when we come out of bright sunshine into the tunnel it looks very dark inside on the TV screens but for me it feels more like driving along a lightly shaded road under a canopy of trees rather than a dark tunnel.

I had hoped to qualify in the top ten after being the fastest Bridgestone runner in 4th place during Thursday's practice session and then 8th fastest during Saturday's practice session, so I was not too disappointed with eleventh. Anything can happen at Monaco so I was still confident of securing a good finish as we had achieved a good balance with my car.

During the race I was running close to Heinz-Harald (Frentzen) but on lap 19 Mika (Salo) had a 'moment' at the chicane caused by his damaged left rear tyre, so I was forced to brake as Heinz-Harald swerved in front of me and that allowed my teammate to get past me. Rather than risk overtaking Takuma, the team asked him to let me through as he was holding me up but sadly he moved aside at the wrong spot, as we exited the tunnel, and his tyres hit the dirty part of the track and he crashed into the barriers. The impact threw his car into my path and so I had to swerve one way and then another to avoid collision.

All this excitement aside, my car was really working well. The engine, the tyres and with another great pitstop I was confident of a good finish. To end in fifth place for the second time in succession was fantastic and a great reward to the team for all their efforts.

Finally, I was asked in Canada about the latest rumour that Eddie Irvine might drive for Jordan. I must admit I like this idea very much - Eddie is a very good driver, he's a nice guy and very friendly, and we get along very well. But who knows if this story is true or not? I guess I will have to wait and see like the rest of you!

But for now, my eyes are set on the upcoming race - my 100th Grand Prix. I was already very close to my first win here, in 1997, but this time I don't just want to be close - I want it in the bag. And then, of course, I would want another 'hat-trick'!

Ciao a tutti

Giancarlo Fisichella's column is written exclusively for Atlas F1 by Fisichella himself, with the assistance of friend and freelance journalist Georgie Shaw.
Fisichella's official website can be found at http://www.giancarlofisichella.it.