08/04/2007
NEWS STORY
The team's PR people always say a frown is just an upside down smile, but there wasn't a lot to convince the Etihad Aldar Spyker Formula One Team this was the case in the Malaysian Grand Prix as both Adrian Sutil and Christijan Albers retired from the race before the seventh lap.
Adrian Sutil had made a good start to his second-ever Formula One event, however a suspension problem before the fourth corner caused him to make contact with one of the Hondas. The impact sent the German into the gravel trap and into retirement.
Christijan Albers also started well, passing Toro Rosso's Vitantonio Liuzzi on the second lap to move into 19th position. The Dutchman kept pace with the back of the field and put in some competitive lap times until his car got stuck in first gear at the start of the sixth lap. Forced to run at extremely high revs to get back to the pits, the car overheated and caught fire on entry to the pit lane. Quickly extinguished by Spyker technicians, Christijan's race was nonetheless brought to a close.
It was a frustrating end to a productive weekend, in which the team had gathered valuable data on its new aero package, but Bahrain can only be better…
Adrian Sutil: I made a good start and got past many cars in first corner and was right behind Button. Under braking for the fourth corner something snapped at the back and I lost control. It's really sad; you look forward to a race and then you only get half a lap. I'm disappointed for the guys too, working hard every day, but we will do better in Bahrain.
Christijan Albers: It was such a shame to go out as I really had confidence in the car in the race. The guys in front were pulling away, but not that fast and I think we could have pushed and got back up there. Then there was the gearbox failure, where I got caught in first gear and came into pits. Unfortunately with the high temperature, the car caught fire and that was it. I hope in Bahrain we're going to have the chance to show the progress we've made in the car this weekend.
Mike Gascoyne, chief technical officer: A miserable end to a tough weekend. Adrian had a problem at the rear of the car, which caused him to have contact with a Honda through the fourth corner, while Christijan's car got stuck in first gear. We're yet to ascertain the reason for the failure, but as he ran at very high revs for a long time to get back to the pits, the exhaust got hot and the bodywork caught alight. We've now got to move onto Bahrain next weekend and hope we have a much better result.
Colin Kolles, team principal and managing director: I am disappointed we didn't get the chance to show the progress we had made with the car this weekend. We knew over the longer runs we were confident of showing an improvement in pace. We'll carry the developments onto Bahrain, where we'll hopefully be able to demonstrate how far we've come.
To check out our Malaysia GP picture gallery, click here