Ninth
place for Spanish youngster Jaime Alguersuari in Abu
Dhabi last night and a resulting two championship points
meant Scuderia Toro Rosso ended the F1 season with
thirteen points and tenth place in the constructors'
standings. Team mate Sebastien Buemi was less fortunate,
the Swiss driver eventually finished in fifteenth place.
The extra two points consolidated
the Faenza, Italy-based team's hold on tenth place in
the constructors championship. They were the last of the
established team to score points and a distant tenth
(ninth placed Sauber, which also uses Ferrari engines,
racked up 44 points) and highlights how far the Red Bull
team has fallen away since Sebastien Vettel (who won the
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix yesterday and was thus crowned
world champion) have fallen since the German
sensationally won the 2008 Italian Grand Prix for Toro
Rosso. Behind Toro Rosso in the final constructors'
championship points table comes the three new teams,
Lotus, Virgin and HRT, all of whom failed to score any
points on their debut season or even looked remotely
like doing so.
In the end of season drivers'
championship standings Buemi remains on eight points,
which leaves him in sixteenth place, while Alguersuari
is the final driver to score points this year and his
final points tally climbs to five points (thanks to two
points yesterday); he is nineteenth in the
classification.
Jaime
Alguersuari (STR5-01) Pos. 9th
“I am very happy with this
result, my third points finish of the season. To be
honest, I am not quite sure how I ended up ninth, having
started seventeenth! I was very lucky not to be involved
in the Schumacher accident on the opening lap and after
that, it was a good strategic choice to change tyres
immediately the Safety Car came out. After that, the
tyres worked very well for the whole race with no
degradation at all on the rears. I could feel the track
condition improving all the time and that meant I was
able to have an edge over Massa in sector three and
maintain the distance in the first two sectors, even
though he was probably fractionally faster than me. I am
very happy with the team because they did a good job on
the strategy so for everyone, this ninth place is well
deserved and a nice way to end the season.”
Sebastien Buemi
(STR5-03) Pos. 15th
“Even if the result is not
fantastic, I still think I drove a very good race. I got
a super start and managed to pass five cars. The team
decided to bring Jaime in for a tyre change and keep me
out during the Safety Car period. I think my teammate’s
strategy proved to be the better one as there was no
tyre degradation, as he was able to pit and catch up
behind the Safety Car. So I’m a bit disappointed,
because I feel that if I had been on a different
strategy I could easily have finished in the points.”
Franz Tost (Team
Principal)
“Congratulations to Red
Bull and Sebastian Vettel for winning the Drivers’
Championship. It was the most competitive team
throughout the season and Sebastian was the best driver,
therefore deserving to take the title. As for our
efforts today, Alguersuari had a really fantastic race,
making a good start and then defending his position very
capably. I think this was Jaime’s best race of the
entire season. As for Sebastien, he also made a good
start and despite not feeling quite at ease on the
Option tyre he too did a good job. Finally, as this
season comes to an end, we would like to pay tribute to
Bridgestone and thank them for the close cooperation we
have enjoyed over the past years and we wish them the
very best for the future.”
