Jaime Alguersuari picked up his third consecutive points finish at today’s British Grand Prix, helping Toro Rosso into seventh place in the constructors’ championship.
“In the early stages, all I was concentrating on was staying on the track, as it was very slippery and I wanted to make no mistakes and get to the finish,” said the Spaniard. “I was definitely faster than Heidfeld and Schumacher, around most of the lap, as was the case in Valencia. But we could not make the most of this as I then lost out to them going down the straight. I'm not sure why that was the case, maybe we ran with a bit more downforce than them.
“However, I am happy for the team, who I thank for doing a good job, as getting back into the points from eighteenth on the grid was a good result after we failed to make the most of the Soft tyre in qualifying.”
Things did not go quite as well for his team-mate though. Sebastien Buemi was involved in a collision with Paul di Resta, giving him a race-ending puncture. “I'm a bit disappointed as I feel we could have picked up some points today,” he said. “I was running at a good pace.
“I would like to see the footage with Di Resta again to see exactly what happened, but from the cockpit, I was on the dry line, he tried to come up the inside of me where the track surface was still very wet. So he could not brake as hard as if he had been on the dry and I felt an impact. He had touched my left rear tyre which shredded it. But that's racing, so it's best to forget it and start thinking about the next race at the Nurburgring.”
Team principal Franz Tost placed the blame for Buemi’s retirement clearly at Force India’s door, but congratulated his team on the well-earned point.
“Another exciting race in general and also for Scuderia Toro Rosso in particular, because yet again we finished in the points, the sixth time from nine races this season and the fourth time in a row,” he said. “It was also another good performance from Jaime. He had a fantastic race, building on a good start. In the final stages he caught up to Schumacher and came close to passing him on the last lap.
“Unfortunately, Sebastien's race ended after a collision with Di Resta, which in my opinion was quite clearly the fault of the Force India driver, as he came up the inside and did not stop, destroying Buemi's left rear tyre, which meant he had to retire at the side of the track. In race conditions, the STR 6 seems to work very well as it produced some excellent lap times.
“Overall the team did a good job, including the choice of strategies and we were competitive throughout the afternoon. All these positive factors mean we can look forward to the next round at the Nurburgring with confidence.”
