No points for Toro Rosso at USA
Toro Rosso were unable to get into the points despite getting very close until a few laps from the end. Daniel Ricciardo finished 11th, just ahead of his teammate Jean-Eric Vergne.
Vergne was however handed a 20 seconds post-race penalty for an incident with Esteban Gutierrez, putting him 17th in the results.
Daniel Ricciardo, STR8-01, 11th: “It was a tough end to the day, really tough. It looked as though we were going to hang on to the flag to get the point for tenth place, but then in the last five laps, I lost pretty much all the grip I had and I saw the guys closing in on me. I tried to hold them off but I didn’t have enough left in the tyres to do it. It’s frustrating to get that close but I put up the best fight I could and there was nothing more I could have done today. It was very difficult to overtake in the early stages when the cars were full of fuel and it wasn’t easy to stay with the car in front through the fast corners, so we had to be patient.”
Jean-Eric Vergne, STR8-04, 12th (demoted to 17th due to penalty): “The final result was nothing special, but I feel I had a good race. We had planned a two stop, but switched to a single tyre change and for the second part of the race, I was told I had to manage my Options carefully, but I was given the go ahead to push again with 15 laps to go and at that point my race pace was quite good. So I feel we did a good job with the car we had. On the last lap, I tried to pass my team-mate at Turn 1, and it didn’t work and we ran wide, but I think he had used a bit of Kers on the straight so I couldn’t pass him. I used all my KERS on the next straight to try and outbrake him but then Gutierrez clipped my rear wheel at Turn 12 and he tried to pass me and we touched.”
Franz Tost, Team Principal: “We approached this race with an open mind regarding strategy and our original plan was to run Daniel on one stop and Jev on two. However, it soon became clear that a one-stop would work for both and we moved Jev to that, after he had been the only driver starting on the Prime. He did a good job dealing with the others around him on the Option and then fought his way back up the field to P12, two places higher than he started. Overall, it was a good performance in terms of his pace and Jev drove a very strong and aggressive race. As for Daniel, he got stuck behind Di Resta for a while, but passed him in the second part of the race and built up a nice gap. Unfortunately, in the very last few laps, his tyres were giving up and he could not fend off Button. It’s never a pleasant feeling to lose a point in the final lap but it was a solid performance, which would have looked much better if we had qualified further up the grid on Saturday.”
