Sebastien Buemi rued his inability to overtake Michael Schumacher in the pits, as the Toro Rosso failed to make it into the points.
The Swiss driver found himself forced wide by the Mercedes driver at the start and then later found himself unable to pass the German in the pit stop phase.
This ruined any chance of Buemi scoring points for the Italian team; eventually settling for twelfth.
Team-mate Jaime Alguersuari saw his race cut short, after being forced to pull off the circuit with fluid leaking out of his STR5.
Sebastien Buemi – 12th: “My start was not great, but not too bad. On the way down to the first corner Michael (Schumacher) pushed me over to the left side and I had to go on the brakes, or I would have gone off the track and I don’t think it was very fair on his part. Then I had to try and fight back as I was behind a Lotus, although I was able to overtake Trulli quite easily. After the Safety Car period, I found myself behind Michael. I should have passed him when he came out of the pits on the Prime tyre, but I was not quick enough and I was unable to get ahead of him, spending most of the race in that position. Maybe if I had managed that, the point for tenth might have been within our reach. Then, towards the end of the race, I had some tyre degradation so I could no longer keep up with him. It was always going to be difficult to score points, but all the same finishing twelfth is rather disappointing.”
Jaime Alguersuari – DNF: “A very short race for me and I am not sure what the problem was, as I saw no alarms on my dash. I felt that I was beginning to lose torque and power and the pit wall told me to stop the car at the side of the track. I saw a lot of smoke and I realised I was losing some fluid, so I tried to stay off the racing line so as not to cause problems for the others. It was not the best way to celebrate the first anniversary of my Formula 1 debut.”
