Toro Rosso unable to score points
Toro Rosso knew it was going to be difficult to get into the points in Brazil, and that expectation materialized. From low grid positions, both drivers got stuck in traffic and lacked top speed to progress through the field.
Daniil Kvyat, STR9-03, 11th: “A tough race, but starting from the 17th position on the grid and ending up 11th was the highest result we could achieve today. I really did my best but unfortunately the Mercedes powered cars were a lot quicker than us on the straights and we couldn't do anything more than this. We have tried hard to fight for 10th position but we just weren't fast enough. Me and the whole team gave the maximum and I hope that all our efforts will be repaid in Abu Dhabi, for our last race.”
Jean-Eric Vergne, STR9-01, 13th: “It was a little bit painful today. I spent almost the whole race in traffic behind Perez and I was slower than him, so even with the DRS open on the straight it was not possible to overtake him. This made me lose a lot of time and from then on my race was over. There was no way to score points today. It was a tough weekend but it’s already behind my back. We have to move forward, the race in Abu Dhabi will be very important for us. We have to take the positive and the negative, turn the page and get ready for the last round of the season.”
Franz Tost, Team Principal: “Our weekend has been compromised from the very beginning because of various factors. Daniil Kvyat had to purge a 7 place penalty on the starting grid, due to a 7th engine change in Austin and Jean Eric Vergne wasn’t able to carry out a proper preparation for the race due to a technical problem on Friday afternoon in FP2. As a consequence, our performance was not as good as we would have liked. Nevertheless, with Daniil we managed to finish the race in the 11th position, thanks to an efficient strategy that brought him close to scoring one point. As for Jean-Eric Vergne, he was constantly caught in traffic and it was not possible to overtake on the long straight. He took the chequered flag in the 13th position.
"Overall, we knew that here in Sao Paolo it would have been difficult to score points but we will try to be in the best possible shape to reach this target in Abu Dhabi, the very important last event of the season.”
Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 track support leader: “It’s been a pretty tough day for the team, especially as we needed to push throughout the race at a circuit where the Power Unit is made to work very hard. We didn’t encounter any problems though and maximised everything towards the end in an effort to help Daniil find a way past Bottas in their fight for 10th and the final point. The Williams is very slippery in a straight line though and unfortunately we didn’t quite have enough. There were also no problems for Jean-Eric, but he was still slightly compromised by his limited running on Friday.”
