Sunday: Strong performances by Virgin drivers

Timo Glock – Retirement

« I had a good race before having a problem with the rear suspension. Even though the cars in front of us were a bit faster, we stayed in contact with them and could have a little fight. But unfortunately, the right rear pushrod was damaged and collapsed in the harbor chicane, I’m lucky that it happened in a slow part of the circuit.

So it’s a bit disappointing after what has been a good weekend for us. We had a good qualification yesterday and today we had a good chance to finish the race. Unfortunately, that was not the case. I want to thank the team for this good weekend after two very busy weeks for us.

Jérôme d’Ambrosio – 15th

« It was a nice race for me, which was all about tire management. After starting on the prime soft tires [Note: The slower yellow-bordered tires], the car wasn’t as fast, but during the race, we decided that we could make a one-stop strategy work. Then the safety car came out a few laps before when we had decided to stop, so we had to switch to the super-softs at that moment. It was going well for 30 laps, but when Heidfeld passed me, I picked up some rubber pieces and couldn’t clean the tires again. I just lost grip and the Lotus cars were able to pass me, and that was it. It’s still a good first Grand Prix in Monaco and I’m looking forward to more. It’s a real privilege to race in a Formula 1 car here. »

John Booth

«We predicted yesterday that the race would experience incidents, and we needed to be ready to take advantage of any opportunity that came our way, and that’s exactly what our drivers did today. It was a tough decision to start our two cars on separate strategies, but it paid off at different stages of the race. We had information from Timo’s first stint on option tires which made us confident that, when the safety car came out, we could pit Jérôme with only one stop and gain the track position that we achieved with the strategy. Jérôme did a great job defending against the Lotus cars for about 15 laps, but due to going off line for a blue flag, he picked up some rubber debris and was no longer able to stay ahead.

Timo drove a solid first stint to stay in touch with the guys in front. Throughout the weekend, he demonstrated great skills and flawless performances, but unfortunately, we believe the right-rear pusher broke during the race, so we will go and analyze what caused that.

Overall, it was a challenging but rewarding couple of weekends, and we will return to our base to prepare for the trip to Canada in two weeks.