Virgin Racing continue to be plagued by reliability issues, as both its drivers failed to finish in the Chinese Grand Prix.
Lucas di Grassi had been forced to start the race from the pitlane, after the team opted to change his clutch after qualifying. However, once out on track, the Brazilian was immediately forced to retire with a similar problem.
Timo Glock’s race was equally frustrating as his car lost engine valve system air pressure on the grid and forced him to also start the race from the pitlane. Ultimately the problem could not be entirely fixed and the team opted to retire the German’s car.
Timo Glock – DNF: “A very difficult day for myself and the whole team. Everything was going well until late into the grid procedure, so the problem came out of the blue and there was nothing we could do to make the start. It proved to be a great race – one that we would obviously have wanted to be part of. At times like this, when things are so disappointing, you just have to make use of the frustration and get something good from it. I know everyone will want to get to the bottom of what happened for us and fix it and I think that process will ensure that we have a much better start to the European season.”
Lucas di Grassi – DNF: “This is obviously not a great way to end our weekend and that is very frustrating because we had two very good days of running on Friday and Saturday. I know we will work hard to identify the problems, fix them and get back to the kind of performance we experienced in Malaysia because we have what it takes to continue to be the best of the new teams.”
Nick Wirth, Technical Director: “Following the overnight Parc Ferme, we started the cars this morning and discovered that the clutch on Lucas’ car was not functioning correctly. We changed the clutch before the race, but it still wasn’t working properly even when we eventually got Lucas out and into the Race and ultimately we had to retire him. Timo’s car lost engine valve system air pressure on the Grid, which required us to move him back to the garage. We attempted to refill the air system but it was clear that there was a substantial air leak from the system in a place which was difficult to access quickly, so we were also forced to retire his car. All in all, a very disappointing day, but I know that we will get to grips with the problems and bounce back in Barcelona.”
