12/06/2011
NEWS STORY
Today's rain-soaked Canadian Grand Prix was one of the most enduring races in recent history. It lasted over four hours from lights to flag, and when the cars weren't running behind the safety car there was action on almost every lap. With the winner of the race only being decided on the last lap, it will certainly be one of the most talked-about races of the season.
The Marussia Virgin Racing team once again brought both cars home, with Jerome d'Ambrosio and Timo Glock classified 14th and 15th. During the race both drivers were fighting for position with cars from several teams and were able to avoid any contact in the often chaotic conditions.
The team initially benefited from the wet set-up chosen earlier in the weekend, but ultimately in the drying conditions the resulting lack of top speed, coupled with worn and flat-spotted tyres, left both drivers unable to defend their hard-earned positions.
Jerome D'Ambrosio: "It was just an unbelievable race. We were in a racing situation for about four hours. I've never experienced anything like that. It was something quite special. There were quite a lot of ups and downs - before the red flag I stopped twice and then suddenly after the restart I found myself racing with Timo and I thought, what's happening? It was crazy! Then at the last restart I lost a lot of time with the blue flags, having to go offline onto the wet to let them past and at the end I couldn't fight for position because with our wet setup I didn't have the same top speed. But It was a great race and really good experience for me."
Timo Glock: "It was an unusual and difficult race. I think it's one of the longest races I've ever raced in! It was a bit of a shame in the last part of the race as I had quite a good pace and I managed to catch and pass Trulli. But then I had a massive lock-up on both front tyres which cost me badly at the end. I couldn't go flat any more on the straights because of all the vibrations, so when Karthikeyan came up behind me I tried to stay in front but he made a move into the last corner and pushed me off the track. He shortcut the chicane when he overtook me and Jerome got by in that incident too. On the last lap there was nothing I could do as the tyres were completely destroyed."
John Booth, Team Principal: "An eventful race to say the least and one that initially looked to be playing in our favour given the level of downforce we had chosen to run. With Timo we held our nerve during the first part of the race, waiting for the rain that was obviously coming on the radar as we felt that a stop for intermediate tyres would have been costly. This proved to be the case with Timo being 15th at the restart. The second part of Timo's race initially didn't go well, with him losing places when we stopped for intermediates, however with the stops for slicks he managed to get back past Trulli. Unfortunately, during the final safety car period, we noticed in the data a flat-spotted tyre and we advised Timo but given his position we needed to try to race to the end as a pitstop would have dropped us to last. Jerome had quite an eventful race - starting last and finishing 14th. He did a good job considering the events of the weekend. We used him at times to try out strategies with intermediates and even with this he managed to achieve a good result. All credit to him."
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