It was a disappointing Chinese Grand Prix for Toro Rosso with Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi failing to score points.
Buemi, who admitted before the race that he had set his car up to handle the wet conditions, found his race ended in less than a lap after being involved in a multi-car pile up.
Meanwhile, Jaime Alguersuari’s surge for points was halted when he damaged his front wing after colliding with Karun Chandhok. He eventually finished thirteenth.
Jaime Alguersuari – 13th: “I tried to get points today, but in the end it wasn’t possible as I made a mistake lapping a Hispania, who was slower than me and was shown the blue flag, but he moved from side to side. I tried to get past on the right, but he came back on me and touched my wing, which is how I lost it. We tried to switch to Intermediates before everyone, but in the end I had to pit for an additional set. I did what I could in what was a crazy race. On the slick tyres, we were really fast and I got past Sutil and there were some good passing moves, but I’m disappointed with the result. Now we go to my home race in Barcelona where I hope to challenge for points again.”
Sebastien Buemi: DNF: “Not running on Friday was my first problem, because that means you don’t qualify so well and once you have to start the race from the middle of the pack, the risk of this type of accident is always greater. I don’t want to blame anyone for the crash, but Liuzzi lost his car and crashed into me. It has been a very difficult weekend and now we need to work and see what we can do in Barcelona. I also need a bit more luck.”
Franz Tost: “Sebastien made a good start, but unfortunately, he was hit by Liuzzi, who spun under braking. This was the second time this season that Sebastien has been involved in an accident not of his own making. Overall, he performed well this weekend up to that point, recovering from his lack of running on Friday. I’m sure a good result will come his way soon. Jaime drove another good race, even if the changing weather conditions were not so easy for him to deal with. He had to make two extra stops, once after the first lap when he thought he had damaged his front wing, after touching Kobayashi. But when he came in, we did not see any damage, so did not change it. The second stop came when he lost the front wing after a coming together with a backmarker and, but for these two extra stops, I’m convinced he could have finished in the points once again. Our car performance was good here and the team worked well in this afternoon’s complicated conditions, so we are looking forward to Spain.”
