Sunday: Van der Garde happy, Pic dissatisfied at Caterham

Giedo van der Garde – 18th:

« I must say that this is one of my best races. The car was superb today and the work the guys did during the stops, they were really on it and that helped a lot in the race. At the start, I was ahead of Räikkönen who hit my left rear in the first corner. I almost spun after the contact, and I lost a bit of time on my teammate and Chilton, but Charles and I overtook him at the end of the second lap and then we also got Bottas. I’m obviously happy that luck was on my side this time and I was able to get through the first lap, and from there, the car was excellent, just super well balanced.

At the first stop, I switched from soft to medium tires and was able to attack everywhere, I had a bit of oversteer but nothing too serious. I was behind my teammate after the stops, but I was faster, and the team asked him to let me pass: with the clean air, I was really able to push and widened the gap with him until the checkered flag.

We know that we need more luck and for things to happen to the cars ahead in order to be able to regain the 10th place in the championship, but it’s always good to finish ahead of our closest rivals. We need to maintain this form until the last two races, and I know that if things continue like this, we will be able to do what it takes to end my first season on a really positive note.

Charles Pic – 19th:

The car was understeering all weekend, and it just continued in the race. I had a decent start, I passed Chilton and Bottas at the end of the second lap, and I immediately pulled away until the first stop on lap 8, when we went from soft to medium tires.

In the second stint, the car had no balance to work with. I was ahead of Giedo but the team asked me to let him pass so I did, but the way the car was behaving, I couldn’t get more out of it. It was the same until the checkered flag. In the last stint, it seemed a bit better but still far from what I wanted.