|
There was no
joy for Scuderia Toro Rosso in Malaysia this afternoon
as Sebastien Bourdais and Sebastien Buemi were caught
out by the rainstorm in the Red Bull liveried cars, the
former losing time after making the wrong tyre choice
when the rain started falling while the latter wound up
stalled in the gravel after sliding off the Sepang track
in the wet.
The day had
started promisingly with Frenchman Bourdais lining up 15th
on the grid and his young Swiss rookie team mate in 20th
place with the hope that the expected late afternoon rain
could shake up the order and allow them to challenge for the
points paying positions. The rain did shake the race up and
eventually bring out the red flag, but the team from Faenza
in Italy couldn't capitalise on all the havoc and both the
Ferrari-powered STR4 cars failed to reach the points scoring
positions in the shortened Malaysian Grand Prix.
Sebastien Bourdais (STR4-02) Pos. 10th
“Round about lap
18, we were running low on fuel so we were hoping for rain
before the end of the first stint. It didn’t come quite in
time and we gambled on extreme wets as heavy rain was
expected, but instead it was more like drizzle, so we
changed again to intermediates. Then the rain really came
and I had to come in again for extremes and after that, the
race was stopped. It was a shame, as it seemed we were
pretty competitive in these very changeable conditions. I
would have liked to restart, as it might have been an
opportunity to pick up points, even if only half-points.”
Sebastien Buemi
(STR4-01) Pos. Retired
“We were really
going well and I think I was around P7 or 8 and the plan was
to come in on the following lap, but then I went off at Turn
5. The extreme tyres were completely gone, like driving on
slicks and I slowed down, but obviously not enough for the
amount of water, so I spun, went into the gravel and
stalled. We were competitive in terms of speed at some
stages, running in the top six lap times, even though I was
running last, having had to come in to change the nose. I
think one of the Force India cars pushed me wide at the exit
of the last corner and I ran over something that broke the
front wing. I am disappointed as the spin at the end was my
mistake and it is on days like this that we should have
picked up some points.”
|
