Franz Tost was ecstatic after seeing Carlos Sainz Jr. secure the Scuderia Toro Rosso’s equal best result outside of their 2008 Italian Grand Prix victory with a fourth place finish in the Singapore Grand Prix.
The Spaniard drove a perfect race, making the switch to the Supersoft tyres at the right time, and withstood pressure from behind from Sergio Perez until the chequered flag despite a late interruption from the safety car and running on a harder compound of tyre compared to the Mexican.
Team Principal Tost, who knows Sainz will leave the team at the end of 2017 to join the Renault Sport Formula 1 Team, praised the twenty-three-year-old for his drive in difficult conditions, and his team of engineers and mechanics for a perfect night at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.
“What a fantastic result today, we’ve equalled our best race result since our win in Monza 2008, another P4!” said Tost.
“Carlos did a fantastic job, keeping everything under control in a difficult situation at the beginning of the race, going through a long and demanding race and bringing home a fourth position finish and 12 points. The team also did a fantastic job in all aspects.
“As for our decision to go on supersofts, we did this because we thought this would have given us an advantage towards the end of the race. However, with the Safety Car and tyre warm-up, this call was not without its challenges, but it worked out in the end.
“The mechanics were very good, delivering fast pit stops, and I’d like to thank the whole team because we’ve all worked very hard for this fantastic result. We’ve taken our chances today, been aggressive and not been afraid to try something different and this has paid off here.
“This now makes us all very happy and in a very positive mood before travelling to the next Grand Prix in Malaysia in two weeks’ time.”
