Sebastien Buemi picked
up the final point on offer in yesterday's Monaco Grand
Prix after the Toro Rosso driver successfully steered
clear of the multiple incidents which eliminated other
cars and helped the Swiss driver chip his way up the
finishing order. Team mate Jaime Alguersuari however was
caught up in the late race incident that brought out the
red flags and the Spaniard's badly damaged Ferrari
V8-powered SRT6 retired on the spot.
One point for
yesterday's efforts moves the Red Bull-owned team from
Faenza in Italy up to seven points in the F1
Constructors' Championship, adding to the four scored it
in Australia and the two in Turkey and gets the points
rolling again after a zero score the previous weekend in
Barcelona. Seven points keeps Toro Rosso in seventh
place in the constructors' standings, three behind Force
India (10 points) and five ahead of Williams (2 points).
Toro Rosso were also
handed an additional boost yesterday morning when the
team's third driver, Daniel Ricciardo, won the
supporting Formula Renault 3.5 Series race. Ricciardo,
who has been testing for Toro Rosso during one of the
two Friday practice sessions this year, is widely
expected to replace either Buemi or Alguersuari in a
race seat from mid season onwards.
Sebastien Buemi
(STR6-04) Pos. 10th
"I started sixteenth and finished tenth after a very
difficult grand prix, because by the end of it, I have
to admit I was not too sure where we were in terms of
strategy and tyres, with the situation made more
complicated by the Safety Car and the red flag. I think
we can be happy with our race pace as my lap times were
quite good. To come away from the toughest race of the
year with a point is pleasing, especially when you
consider our qualifying did not go so well. Now I am
looking forward to Canada, where I had a good race last
year, finishing eighth."
Jaime Alguersuari (STR6-01)
Retired
"I seemed to be in traffic all the time, which is
normal here, so I was unable to exploit the full
potential of the tyres. It was very difficult, or nearly
impossible to overtake so there was not much I could do,
having started so far back on the grid. As for the
accident towards the end, I was overtaking Heidfeld at
the time. I think Sutil had a problem with his rear tyre,
so Hamilton braked very hard in front of me and,
although I also braked as hard as I could, it was too
late, I could not stop and went into him. Of course it’s
disappointing, but our race pace is encouraging so I
hope we can make use of that in Montreal in two weeks
time."
Franz Tost (Team Principal)
"Another very exciting
Formula 1 race, with action from the very beginning to
the end, including a re-start. On top of that, the top
three finished within 2.3 seconds, having each gone for
different strategies – a one stop, a two and a three,
which shows how complex it is to find the best strategy
these days. From the Toro Rosso point of view, the whole
team did a good job as we come away with one point,
which was better than we could have expected after a
rather disappointing qualifying performance yesterday.
Sebastien Buemi did a very good job, not making any
mistakes which is not easy at Monaco, eventually
finishing six places higher than his grid position.
Jaime Alguersuari was unfortunately involved in the
accident that brought out the final safety car and then
the red flag. He had nowhere to go and he could not
avoid it. Now, we must analyse why our qualifying
performance was not good enough, whereas our race pace
was better. For the next two races, we will have the
same Soft and Supersoft Pirelli tyres, which suggests
that Montreal and Valencia should also produce some
exciting racing."
