Quiet race disrupted by pitstop error for van der Garde
Caterham F1 drivers Charles Pic and Giedo van der Garde generally had a quiet race at Monza today. Only for van der Garde a pitstop issue occurred which put him out of battle with his team mate.
Charles Pic, car 20, chassis CT03-#6, 17th: “My start was good and I held position into turn one and was up with Bottas and pushing to keep pace with him. Up to the first pitstop I was just about keeping him range but then in the second stint he was a lot quicker and I simply didn’t have the pace to fight with him. The car felt ok, the first set of tyres worked pretty well and we stuck to the strategy, coming in for the first stop on lap 17.
“We went onto the primes for the second and third stints and, honestly, from the time I rejoined the track after the first stop the rest of the race was pretty quiet for me. When the blue flags started coming out we had to manage the traffic and that obviously cost us more time, but our pace meant we were able to cover off our nearest competitors one–stop strategy and that was a the main target today.
“We’ve shown over the last few races that we definitely have a pace advantage over them, and we have enough races left to keep fighting for tenth place in the championship. Next we go to Singapore which is going to be an incredibly busy race off-track, and on track I think our car will be suited to the heat and layout of the track. After a quiet race today it’ll be good to have a few more battles!”
Giedo van der Garde, car 21, chassis CT03-#4, 18th: “After good starts for most of the season I have to say this wasn’t one of my best, but I overtook the Marussia halfway through lap one and was up with Charles until he pitted for the first time. I came in a lap later and with a new set of hard tyres the car felt good – my pace was on target and I was easily able to pull away from the cars behind and push on to Charles.
“We were running a two stop strategy and I came in for the second stop when I was given the command to box. There was a communication mistake on the pitwall and when I came in the guys weren’t ready for me which obviously cost me a lot of time and I came out behind Bianchi, but I passed him pretty quickly and set about trying to catch my teammate. It’s a shame as my pace in the second stint was really good and I’d have had a chance to pass Charles, but sometimes these things happen – that’s racing.”
