Sebastien Buemi raced to a solid tenth place finish in
the 53 lap Japanese Grand Prix held at Suzuka this
afternoon to collect the final F1 World Championship
point on offer and break Toro Rosso's point scoring duck
that had extended to six races and back to the end of
June.On a day where -
unusually - the qualifying sessions were held this
morning due to heavy rain washing them out on Saturday,
the young Swiss driver completed the race 72.8 seconds
adrift of Sebastien Vettel's winning Red Bull while
Buemi's Toro Rosso team mate Jaime Alguersuari followed
him home in eleventh place, but one lap down.
Sebastien Buemi
(STR5-02) Pos. 10th
“It was a good race for us and
I am happy to have got a point. However, it was a bit
frustrating as, towards the end, I was catching
Barrichello by around one second per lap and maybe if I
had switched to the Option tyre earlier I would have
been more competitive and got closer to him and maybe
got past. The problem I had in qualifying with the floor
of my car did not help, as it was the first time I have
failed to get into Q2.”
Jaime Alguersuari
(STR5-01) Pos. 11th
“We knew it would be a tough
weekend for us here and it was, although I had hoped to
qualify better than I did. In the race, I pushed as hard
as I could. In the later part, Kobayashi was much faster
than me, but that is not a reason to let him past, so I
fought as hard as I could and we touched and I had to
pit for a new nose. I hope my team principal is happy
that I was very determined. I am happy for the team that
Buemi got a point.”
Franz Tost (Team
Principal)
“I am pleased that
Sebastien picked up a point today, because he has had a
run of bad luck in the last few races and he deserved
this point for tenth place. He posted some very good lap
times and was surprisingly fast at times. We benefited
from an element of luck as some of our direct rivals
ended up in the gravel trap. Jaime also did a good job,
producing competitive lap times throughout the race.
Unfortunately, in the closing stages he was involved in
a collision with Kobayashi which meant he had to come in
to change the nose. One point might not be much, but
it’s better than nothing! So, with this morale boost for
the team who did a good job, let’s see what we can do
when we discover Korea for the first time.”
