Exactly a year on since recording its first grand prix win, Scuderia Toro Rosso returned to its home circuit at Monza for a rather fruitless weekend and after starting from the back row neither Sebastien Buemi nor Jaime Alguersuari made any impact in this afternoon's 53-lap Italian Grand Prix. The Swiss rookie eventually finished in thirteenth place, and was one lap down on the winning Brawn of Rubens Barrichello at the chequered flag, while his 19-year-old team-mate retired after 20 laps with gearbox issues.

The team from Faenza in Italy has failed to collect any championship points during the last seven grands prix and it has to go back to Monaco in May for the last time it collected a point. It all leaves the Red Bull owned team sitting on just five points, and thanks to the recent run of form by the perennial tail ender Force India outfit Toro Rosso, it is now firmly the last of the ten teams competing in the F1 World Championship this year, eight points adrift of its closest rival.

Sebastien Buemi (STR4-03): “Starting from the back, the race is never easy, but I feel my lap times were good and consistent, especially in the second stint, so I am reasonably happy. From now on, we go to tracks that are a bit slower and more technical than here, running with more downforce. Let’s see if that works better for us. Some teams have made good progress recently, so we must see if we can manage to close the gap.

Jaime Alguersuari (STR4-02): “I started from the pits, so at least I kept out of the trouble on the opening lap. After that my race was going okay and I was up behind Buemi. But then I had a gearbox problem which caused my retirement. I’d also had some other troubles on Friday and when a weekend starts badly it often ends badly. I’m very disappointed not to finish, as it is very important for me to do as many kilometres in the car as possible.