Scuderia
Toro Rosso's Sebastien Buemi just missed out on the
points paying positions in yesterday's Italian Grand
Prix at Monza, the Red Bull-owned outfit's home race,
the Swiss driver finishing in eleventh place, 65.0
seconds off the winning Ferrari F10 of Fernando Alonso,
while his team mate Jaime Alguersuari was four places
further back at the chequered flag and finished one lap
down.However
the Faenza-based outfit was satisfied with its
performance at Monza during the course of the three days
and believes that the new updates it introduced to the
Ferrari V8-powered STR5 chassis over the weekend worked
well and will be a springboard to allow it to make
further progress during the final leg of overseas races.
It all means though
that the Italian team's points drought now stretches to
five races; the last time it collected any points was
during the European Grand Prix at Valencia on June 27.
With fourteen races completed so far Toro Rosso remains
rooted on ten points and holds down ninth place in the
constructors' championship.
Sebastien Buemi
(STR5-02) 11th
“It was a positive performance,
but a bit frustrating to miss out on the points. I lost
some time around the pit stop, maybe we did it a bit
early and I came out behind Barrichello. That was partly
because the Lotus and Virgin I caught before the pit
stop did not move over very quickly and I lost more time
there. I was much faster than him from then on with the
hard tyres, but it is very difficult to overtake and I
could not find a way past. But all in all, I am pleased
with the performance of the car over the weekend, which
was a definite improvement over the last few races and I
am looking forward to more developments and getting the
F-duct working so that maybe we can have it on the car
for Singapore. If we continue like this I hope to be
able to fight fair and square with the Williams and
Mercedes in the final races.”
Jaime Alguersuari
(STR5-03) 15th
“I am pleased with my actual
performance in terms of lap times and race pace and the
fact I made no mistakes. However, at the moment, I
really don’t understand why I got the drive-through
penalty. It’s the second time in two races that I have
got one of these! As far as I am concerned, although I
did cut the chicane, I did not gain any advantage, catch
the drivers ahead of me or pull away from those behind.
The actual penalty did not make much difference to my
race, but it was annoying all the same.”
Franz Tost (Team
Principal)
“We have made a step
forward here and the performance was good from Friday
onwards. Buemi got a fantastic start, moving up four
places to tenth position. However, prior to the pit
stop, he lost time behind Glock and then on his out lap,
it took a while for him to get the new tyres working
properly, which meant he lost a place to Barrichello.
But he did a really good job throughout the weekend.
Alguersuari, apart from getting a drive-through penalty
for cutting the chicane, also produced good lap times. I
feel quite confident and optimistic for the final few
races, because both the team and the drivers have made
progress, while the most important aspect is that
updates we introduced on our car here seem to have
delivered a better performance level.”
