PlanetF1

Sun: STR, Force India, Renault, Sauber

Sunday 26-June-2011 15:01

There were points in Valencia for Jaime Alguersuari, Adrian Sutil and Nick Heidfeld...

Toro Rosso:
Jaime Alguersuari: "I am very happy with this result, especially after I only qualified in eighteenth place. It definitely paid off to concentrate on race set-up. This was a fantastic race and I want to thank my mechanics who worked so hard after the problems we had with my car on Friday during Free Practice. So this result is a reward I am happy to give them. Even though I still struggle to get the best out of the tyres in qualifying, I feel I now have a much better understanding of how to use them in the race and that's definitely the best way round as the points are only given out after the race! We were able to run at a consistent pace all afternoon, which was the key to this result and it's the first time this season that I have had this feeling from the car and I am happy about that. Apart from working well with the tyres, I think the updates the team brought here were also a contributing factor, as they worked well and that partly explains why my pace was really good."

Sebastien Buemi: "First of all, congratulations to Jaime who drove a very good race to bring home some valuable points for the team. I had a very good start, passing quite a few people and running at a strong pace in the early stages. However, as soon as I had degradation from my tyres, my lap times slowed and I was no longer able to pass other cars. Now, immediately after the race, I'm not sure why I was not quick enough, as after the first stint I could no longer match my team-mate's times, so we will have to look at the data. So, I am a bit disappointed, but we can sort it out and be ready to try again at Silverstone in two weeks time."

Force India:
Adrian Sutil: "To finish ninth feels great and I'm pleased that we've managed to get the maximum from the car through the whole weekend. I made a good start: jumping ahead of Heidfeld and was then able to keep up with Schumacher in the first stint. I pushed hard but there was no opportunity to get by him. In the middle of the race I had some clear track, good race pace and we were up to P8. After the final stop, I came out behind Alguersuari, who was doing a two-stop race. I tried all I could to overtake him, but the DRS zone did not make overtaking very easy and I had to settle for P9. The car felt really nice to drive today and I'm really happy for the whole team with this result."

Paul di Resta: "I'm not sure that we got the strategy quite right today. There were a couple of laps in the first stint where my tyres had gone off and we didn't stop early enough. We made up for that during the second stop, when I jumped Heidfeld and Barrichello, but I lost out again at my final stop. It's tough when the tyres go off because it costs you around two and a half seconds per lap, which is a lot when the fight in the middle of the pack is so close. Even without those issues it would have been tough to score points today because overtaking was more difficult that I thought it would be, even with the DRS zone. So it hasn't been the best of weekends, but I'll put that behind me and look forward to my home race at Silverstone."

Renault:
Nick Heidfeld: "What cost us a little bit today was our starts. I lost a position to Adrian (Sutil) and then had to fight hard not to lose more. I finished more or less where I had been for the majority of the race (behind Sutil). I managed to overtake him once but then he used DRS to get past me and unfortunately I was not able to attack any harder to get by him. It's still another point gained for the team, but I did not expect to finish behind one Force India and one Toro Rosso. Overall this weekend, we pushed hard but it just has not been possible to get the pace out of the car that we wanted at this track. We will remain optimistic, though because Silverstone is a track with a lot of high speed corners, and our car performs well in these conditions. We will also see how the new regulations affect our car, but I think it will have a positive impact for our team."

Vitaly Petrov: "Of course I am disappointed with today's race. I was very surprised that the tyres did not last very well for us, as some of our competitors were able to do a two-stop race whereas we needed three. We know that our car's pace was not fantastic here and the race has strongly highlighted that we have work to do because we should finishing easily in the top ten. The incident with Schumacher did not cause a puncture. He seemed to exit the pits very quickly and did not seem to be able to stop his car coming into the first corner. Luckily, I saw him in my mirror but there was still some contact. We need to sit down now and carefully analyse where and why we are losing pace so we can have a better race at Silverstone."

Sauber:
Sergio Perez: "In the beginning I had a very difficult time with the harder tyres, but also with the softer ones I had a lack of grip and later in the race I lost a lot of time due to blue flags. It was not an easy Grand Prix for a comeback and I'm happy I was able to race again. I gave a hundred percent, but I'm afraid this was the maximum we could get today. However, we will analyse how we can improve for the future, and I'm sure Silverstone will be better."

Kamui Kobayashi: "It was a very tough race for me. I struggled all the time and never had the performance to fight. It was difficult to manage the tyres. I tried to take care of them as well as possible, but they were gone pretty quickly. Then, at those times when I wanted to push, I got stuck in traffic. We have some work to do, this is for sure."