Jaime Alguersuari
was the best-placed finisher for Scuderia Toro Rosso, the
young Spaniard crossed the line eleventh in Melbourne on
Sunday afternoon, just one place off the points while his
team mate Sebastien Buemi was eliminated on the first lap.
Alguersuari, who started from seventeenth on the grid, spent
many laps of the Australian Grand Prix fending off the
attentions of the Mercedes GP driven by former F1 World
Champion Michael Schumacher and the Spanish driver was 71.3
seconds adrift of Jenson Button's winning McLaren at the
chequered flag. The result leaves the Faenza, Italy-based
Toro Rosso squad without a point after the first two races
of the 2010 season.
Jaime
Alguersuari
"I think on the one
hand I'm quite happy as I had a long fight with Michael
(Schumacher) which was nice. I was under a lot of pressure,
but I was able to keep him behind me for many laps until I
made a small mistake at Turn 13 with a few laps to go and he
managed to pass me. That mistake might have cost me a point,
but we have to be happy with the progress we made this
weekend, especially as I feel there is still a lot more to
come."
Sebastien Buemi
"Today went really
badly for me as I was involved in someone else's accident on
the opening lap and I don't really know how it happened; I
guess Kobayashi must have braked really late. I did not get
the best of starts but I was still holding position. Then I
was hit from behind at Turn 6. It's a very disappointing end
to what had looked like a promising weekend with a very real
chance to score points at the end of Sunday. But that's
racing and at least we only have to wait a few days to try
again in Malaysia."
Franz Tost, Team
Principal
"This was a
fantastic and very interesting Formula 1 race and a lesson
to those who seem to want to change the rules of the sport
every five minutes. Unfortunately, Buemi was involved in an
opening lap incident with Kobayashi. As for Alguersuari, he
did a solid job right from the start of Friday and it was by
far the most competitive race weekend of his F1 career. His
performance continues to improve with every race and he
would have deserved a point today. He also learned an
interesting lesson from Michael Schumacher, in that if you
lose concentration for just one tenth of a second, he will
pass you. Overall, I am quite confident for the forthcoming
races, as when compared to our work in Bahrain, the team
made a significant step forward here in Melbourne."
