Sunday: Ricciardo and Toro Rosso bite the dust in Sakhir
Starting 17th on the grid, Jean-Eric Vergne finished the race just ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, who had started in 6th position. The Australian, who made a poor start, was also forced to change the nose of his STR7 early in the race.
Jean-Eric Vergne – 14th:
« It’s the same as in China where I managed to have a good race pace, but I’m slow in qualifying. We need to find a solution to this because if we can qualify higher, with our race pace, then we should have more positive results on Sunday.
I gave it my all today even though I started at the back of the pack. Now we have a short break before the next race, but we will have tests at Mugello where we need to carefully see what we can do, hoping to arrive in Spain with a better car. As for me, I need to analyze what isn’t working for me in the qualifiers.
As a Frenchman, I think it’s great that Romain is on the podium and I’m super happy for him. It would have been nice if I could have had a car as competitive as his to fight with him for a place on the podium.
Daniel Ricciardo – 15th:
« This is not what I was hoping for starting from sixth place on the grid. The first lap turned my whole race upside down. I didn’t get off to a great start, and after that, it was like I was going backwards, which made my afternoon frustrating. The damage to the front wing made things worse. I had a good chance of having a solid race today, but losing all those positions at the start cost me dearly.
I must spare no effort now to find what I did wrong and ensure I don’t do it again. It was a race to forget.
