Scuderia Toro Rosso
collected its second helping of points in two races on
Sunday afternoon at Sepang, this time it was Jean-Eric
Vergne who came home inside the top-ten to pick up his
first ever F1 world championship points after surviving the rain struck
Malaysian Grand Prix.
Vergne's eighth place in
Malaysia netted him four points to get him off the mark
for the season, while, when added to the two that team
mate Daniel Ricciardo scored in Melbourne last time out, it means Toro
Rosso are now on six points and hold onto eighth place
in the constructors' standings. Ricciardo had a less
fortunate race though and didn't manage to capitalise of the
conditions, the Australian youngster eventually
finishing twelfth.
Jean-Eric Vergne (STR7-03) Race finish: 8th
"To from eighteenth on the grid to eighth and in the
points at the end is great. I stayed out for a long time
on the intermediates after the start and then the Red
Flag came along to help me so I was able to switch to
extreme wets on the grid. If I had to resume behind the
Safety Car on the intermediates it would have been very
hard to stay on track! As soon as the track was dry
enough I came in again for intermediates but I lost a
bit of time before I made the switch to slicks. After
that I was catching Di Resta, but with the backmarkers
in between us I could not get close enough to pass, so I
just managed the situation, concentrating on bringing
the car home. So I am happy to settle for this eighth
place and I plan to keep improving step by step. After
these two opening races, the overall performance has
been quite good and I feel we can make progress in China
starting from this good base line."
Daniel Ricciardo (STR7-01) Race
finish: 12th
"Unfortunately, after being delayed in the early
stages, when I lost places after the start in the rain,
I never managed to fight my way back into the points. I
think there were moments in the race when I ran at quite
a good pace, but I did not have that extra edge to move
up the order. When the track was drying before the pit
stops that is when I again lost time, so of course I am
a bit disappointed, but there are still eighteen races
remaining and I’m sure I will have plenty more
opportunities to do well."
Franz TosT (Team Principal)
"In Melbourne we scored points with Daniel and now in
Sepang, it was the turn of our rookie driver, Jean-Eric
to secure his first ever Formula 1 points, with a strong
drive to eighth place. As is often the case in Malaysia,
we witnessed a very exciting race in which Jean-Eric did
an excellent job as it was the first time he has raced a
Formula 1 car in wet conditions. He made no mistakes and
produced really good lap times and so this eighth place
is well deserved. These four points are also the result
of excellent work from the team, making the correct
decisions as regards pit stops and tyre strategy as well
as managing the complicated situation while the race was
suspended. Daniel lost too much time in the early stages
of the race to fight back into the points, but his lap
times in the later part were very good. The STR7
performed quite well this afternoon in both the wet and
the dry and finally congratulations to our engine
partner Ferrari for this important win."
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