Sunday: Ricciardo resists Schumacher and earns a point for Toro Rosso
By finishing tenth, right under Michael Schumacher's nose, Daniel Ricciardo allows Toro Rosso to score points for the third time in four races. Starting from 19th place after his penalty, Jean-Eric Vergne saw his chances of scoring points vanish in the first stint as he got stuck behind Heikki Kovalainen's Caterham.
Daniel Ricciardo – 10th:
« It was an eventful race. Immediately after the start, I struggled a bit but then, as I shifted gears, I found more traction; however, I lost a place to Hülkenberg. Then, with the crash that brought out the safety car, I managed to gain a few places. I saw Alonso spin out in front of me and it was close, as some of us were not far from getting caught in the accident. I managed to avoid it and overtook Grosjean before turn 3.
From there, I had a pretty good race, staying with Maldonado in the beginning but not managing to pass him. The last two stints were good and I fought with Webber who was on a different strategy. Then, towards the end, I held off Michael [Schumacher] and I was really happy to have won that battle. It’s always tougher when you have the slower car in a duel, but with good advice given from the pit wall on using KERS to defend in the DRS zone, I managed it.
Our level of work, as a team, has improved and I am really delighted with how I performed under pressure. It’s not every day you have a seven-time world champion on your tail, and given that he only has a few races left, it was nice to have a battle with him that I will remember.
Jean-Eric Vergne – 13th:
« I got off to a good start but, in general, I could have had a better race because I lost a lot of time behind Kovalainen during the first stint, as he was on soft tires and had better traction than me coming out of the corners. Also, in the second corner, I had to brake to avoid Rosberg, which meant that everyone overtook me.
After that, I just pushed as hard as I could, showing what the car was capable of by maintaining a strong pace. Losing three places on the grid due to a penalty didn’t help, but once again, we proved that we could be strong on Sunday as we were faster than the Force India cars and Senna.
From now on, I only have a few days to wait before trying again in Korea, where I already drove on Friday morning for Toro Rosso last year. Overall, it was a pleasant weekend, and I’m already looking forward to coming back here next year.
