 |
|
While parent team Red Bull Racing was
wrapping up the constructors' title in Korea
today, Scuderia Toro Rosso posted its best
result of the season as Jaime Alguersuari
finished in seventh place, two positions
ahead of team mate Sebastien Buemi. |
|
|
|
While its parent team,
Red Bull Racing, was wrapping up the constructors' title
in Korea today, Scuderia Toro Rosso posted its best
result of the season as Jaime Alguersuari finished in
seventh place, two positions ahead of his team mate
Sebastien Buemi. That delivered the Italian team 8
points for its afternoon's work, its highest haul of the
season (next best was 7 points at Monza three races ago)
as well as ending a two race barren streak since that
result in Italy.
That result consolidates
Toro Rosso's grip on eighth place in the constructors'
championship standings (ninth placed Williams is on just
5 points) but more importantly closes the
Ferrari-powered team up to just 3 points behind a
similarly Maranello V8-supplied outfit, Sauber.
Jumping up to 37
points also represents a big turnaround in fortunes from
last year when the team from Faenza scored just 13
points in the whole season to finish in ninth place in
the final constructors' rankings.
Jaime Alguersuari
(STR6-02) Pos. 7th
"The reality is that the Toro Rosso team has done a
fantastic job, not just this weekend, but also going
back to Suzuka, where we introduced some updates on the
car. In Japan, we did not make the most of them but in
the few days in between the races the team has done
really well to move forward for here. In qualifying I
did a good lap and then today, I was not concerned about
tyre degradation and believed our two stop strategy was
the right one and it worked perfectly for us. The car
had fantastic straight line speed which is how I managed
to pass Nico on the final lap. I struggled a bit in
sector 2 compared to him which is why I saved all the
KERS for after the first corner, in order to be close
enough to activate the DRS. I ended up using all the
KERS and DRS and it finally paid off right at the end. I
must say I did not think I could do it, I did not expect
it, but I gave it one last effort at the end I was able
to get past, partly helped by the fact he made a small
mistake on that lap. Combined with great pit stops, that
is how we managed to produce this fantastic result. I am
very happy for the team who have worked so hard,
especially the mechanics fitting all these new parts. We
are closer to Sauber now and with three races remaining,
I think we have a chance of passing them, as long as we
continue to perform like this, finishing in the top
ten."
Sebastien Buemi (STR6-03) Pos. 9th
"I am extremely pleased with my
race. Someone drove into me at the first corner which
cost me four places and I’m not really sure what
happened. After that, I had to work hard to pass other
cars – the two Williams, the two Saubers and both Force
Indias - to move up the order. The car was very
competitive with good top speed down the straight. The
pit stops also went very well, so I want to thank the
team who did a great job right from the start of the
weekend. Now, I can’t wait to get to India, because it
seems we have a competitive car and I will be out to
score more points in the first ever race there. We are
now only a few points off Sauber in the championship and
if we continue to work hard, I think we can
realistically try and get ahead of them in the remaining
races."
Franz Tost (Team Principal)
"Seventh and ninth place is by
far our best result of the season, with Jaime matching
his finishing position in Monza. It is down to the hard
work of the entire team at the track and those back in
the factory and at our wind tunnel, because without
their efforts which delivered our most recent updates,
our performance would not have improved to this extent.
It was also the fruit of strong performances from both
our drivers. After 55 laps, only the three top teams
finished ahead of Jaime Alguersuari. After the start, he
dropped one place, before driving a fantastic race,
pulling off some aggressive passing manoeuvres, while
delivering some very fast lap times. His fight to get
past Rosberg on the last lap was very exciting.
Sebastien lost four places at the start and had to fight
his way up the order. He the lost a lot of time behind
the Force India, but once he had dealt with that he too
showed fighting spirit to move up to ninth. It’s a
superb result for Toro Rosso to be the first team on the
results sheet behind the three top teams in this year’s
championship. Finally, congratulations to Red Bull
Racing on adding the Constructors’ crown to the Drivers’
title they secured last Sunday."
|
|
|
