Toro Rosso to investigate transmission failure for Vergne
Daniel Ricciardo secured 7th place and more points for Toro Rosso, moving him up ahead of his team mate in the championship. Jean-Eric Vergne meanwhile started well but had to end the race early with a transmission problem.
Daniel Ricciardo, STR8-01, 7th: “I am pleased with that! After qualifying well yesterday, it was nice to maintain that position at the end of today. In recent races where we have managed to qualify in the top ten, we didn’t have the pace to stay there in the race, but today we did. I think I got the most out of the car, managing to keep the guys behind me and the low downforce set –up certainly helped us down the straights. The others got close to me in the second sector, but I was able to pull away once we got to the high speed sections, which we knew from yesterday would be our strong point. We must keep pushing hard on the car development for the next few races, because hopefully, a top five finish is not too far away.”
Jean-Eric Vergne, STR8-03, DNF: “Everything was going well, I wasn’t actually in a battle at the time and was conserving my tyres and controlling Button behind me quite easily. Then I felt something was wrong and had to stop at the side of the track. I said on the radio I thought the engine had gone, but actually it was still running and it seems I had some sort of transmission problem. A real shame, especially as I knew my final stint on the Hard tyre would be even stronger. I would definitely have finished quite high up in the points as the guys ahead were not pulling away from me. I seem to be suffering a lot of bad luck this season, but I keep believing the turning point will come soon.”
Franz Tost, Team principal: “An excellent performance from Daniel and the entire team resulted in us finishing a well deserved seventh at one of the most famous races on the calendar, which also happens to be our home grand prix. With Daniel, our race ran to plan, although in the early stages we had some concerns about whether tyre degradation would allow us to run our one-stop strategy, but it actually worked out fine. He did a great job of maintaining his position, while looking after his tyres. His afternoon was complicated by the fact he was hardly ever in a position to use DRS, except when coming up behind backmarkers, while the cars behind him were able to use it and close right up to him. As for Jean-Eric, it was a real shame that he again had some bad luck. Having made a good start, he too was holding position but had to retire with a transmission problem, the cause of which we now need to investigate.”
