Sunday: First points for Vergne in F1
Malaysia often offers amazing races in which drivers starting from the back manage to climb up the standings. This was the case again this year, benefiting Jean-Eric Vergne, who started 18th but finished in 8th place to score his first points in F1. His teammate, Daniel Ricciardo, had a more complicated Grand Prix and missed out on the points in 12th position.
Jean-Eric Vergne – 8th
Starting 18th on the grid and finishing 8th in the points is superb. I stayed on intermediates for a long time after the start, and then the red flag came to help me, allowing me to switch to wet tires on the grid. If I had to stay behind the safety car with intermediates, it would have been very difficult to stay on track!
As soon as the track became a bit drier, I switched back to intermediates, but I lost a bit of time before moving to slicks. After that, I was catching up to di Resta, but with the backmarkers between us, I couldn’t get close enough to overtake him, so I just managed the situation, focusing on finishing the race. So I am happy to secure this eighth place, and I plan to continue improving step by step. After these first two races, the overall performance has been very good, and I feel we can make progress in China, building on this strong starting point.
Daniel Ricciardo – 12th
Unfortunately, after being delayed at the start of the race, when I lost places after the start in the rain, I was never able to fight my way back into the points. I think there were times during the race when I really had a good pace, but I lacked that little extra to climb back up the rankings. When the track was drying before the stops, I lost time again, so I’m obviously disappointed, but there are still 18 races left and I’m sure I’ll have other opportunities to do well.
Franz Tost – Team Principal
In Melbourne, we scored points thanks to Daniel and now at Sepang, it was the turn of our rookie driver, Jean-Eric, to score his first points in Formula 1, with a great performance to finish 8th. As is often the case in Malaysia, we were treated to a really thrilling race during which Jean-Eric did an excellent job as it was his first time driving a Formula 1 car in the rain. He made no mistakes and recorded really good lap times, so this 8th place is truly deserved.
«These four points are also the result of the excellent work done by the team; they made the right decisions regarding pit stops and tire strategy while effectively handling the difficult situation when the race was suspended. Daniel lost too much time at the beginning of the race to get back into the points, but his lap times at the end of the race were good. The STR7 performed well this afternoon both in the rain and in the dry, and finally, congratulations to our engine partner Ferrari for this important victory.»
