An ecstatic Sebastian Vettel screamed down the pit radio as he took sixth place for Toro Rosso in Sunday’s European Grand Prix at Valencia.
His fifth place at Monaco may stand as his best result on paper, but with the chaos thrown up by the safety car largely to blame for that result, his assault on the streets of Valencia today – resulting in sixth place – was undoubtedly his finest performance to date.
It wasn’t just that he took the place entirely on merit, but the way he managed to keep the likes of Heikki Kovalainen and Kimi Raikkonen in touch, in far less superior car.
“Incredible! A perfect day. It was fun but tough and hot out there. It’s a nice race track.”
“My start was not so good on the dirty side and going into Turn 1 I was right on the limit and very close to Kimi and could defend my position against Jarno for the first stint, but he had a bit more fuel on board and stayed out an extra lap and he overtook me in the pits.”
“But we can be very very happy with this result. We made no mistakes, no mistakes all weekend and maximised our performance. The whole team can be very proud of what it has achieved and hopefully, for the next races we can be in the top ten again.”
Sebastien Bourdais brought the sister Toro Rosso home in the top ten rounding at a solid weekend for the Faenza based outfit.
“All weekend, the team has performed excellently,” said team chief Franz Tost. We ended up with both our drivers finishing where they started in sixth and tenth places, which is a solid result as all the top teams apart from Ferrari had both their cars finish.”
“Vettel had a good start considering he was on the dirty side of the track, but a touch with Raikkonen left him with some vibration from the front left wheel and his second stint he had a bit of graining.”
“Bourdais also drove a good race and also performed well through the weekend. We have shown that our performance is improving from race to race and so we are looking forward to Spa and Monza.”
“I am convinced that both of these races, especially Monza will suit our package. For Scuderia Toro Rosso and our Red Bull parent company this has been a really successful weekend.”
