Toro Rosso's
difficult weekend in Istanbul was ultimately unrewarding in
Sunday hot and dry afternoon's Turkish Grand Prix after
Sebastien Buemi crossed the finish line in fifteenth place
while team mate Sebastien Bourdais was three further places
back and the last runner home. Their race was ultimately
compromised by their poor qualifying showing.
Both of the
Ferrari-powered STR4 cars were lapped by the race winning
Brawn-Mercedes of Jenson Button by the time the chequered
flag was waved although Toro Rosso's young Swiss rookie
Buemi did beat the Renault of Nelsinho Piquet and the Force
India-Mercedes of Adrian Sutil to the chequered flag, as
well as his French team mate. The Toro Rosso drivers
struggled with the Bridgestone control tyres right from
Friday morning's first free practice session although the
Faenza-based team is optimistic it can draw lessons from its
weekend in Turkey and improve its competitive form time for
Silverstone.
Sebastien Buemi
(STR4-03) Pos. 15th
“It was a tough but
a good race for me, as I attacked as hard as I could. We
have to stay positive and today, we looked a bit more
competitive than over the rest of the weekend. For me, after
the last two races, it was a good experience to finish the
Grand Prix today and get more mileage. Now we need to do two
things: analyse exactly what went wrong in qualifying and
get some updates for the car as soon as possible. We will
have to make the best of the next two races, after which we
are hoping to have some major improvements for Hungary. We
need to continue to work hard.”
Sebastien Bourdais
(STR4-01) Pos. 18th
“Starting at the
back was always going to be difficult. After the start,
Fisichella seemed to be in trouble and was all over the
place, so I couldn’t take too many risks trying to get past
and I lost between 3 and 4 seconds on the opening lap. Of
course, I also had to deal with a very heavy fuel load and
after that, I had a solitary race. Doing the long second
stint on the Option tyre was also not easy. We opted for a
one-stop strategy in the hope that circumstances or a Safety
Car might help us move up the order. It’s been clear all
weekend we were off the pace, but we have to stay positive
and think about how to improve for Silverstone, when we can
expect to have a few minor upgrades on the car.”
