24/07/2011
NEWS STORY
HRT F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo completed the second race of his F1 career and finished in 19th position in cool and challenging conditions at the Nurburgring. Team mate Vitantonio Liuzzi's car suffered an unfortunate electrical failure on lap 37 causing him to retire from the race.
Vitantonio Liuzzi: "It was a shame because, even though the penalisation for the gearbox meant we had to start from P23, we had a strong start where we passed a few cars on the first lap and had good pace. A few laps into the race we started to suffer some problems with the brake balance and we lost quite a bit of pace. After the pit stop, with the tyre change, we recovered our strong pace until an unfortunate electronic issue forced us to retire".
"Overall, there's been an improvement from Silverstone but we need to push harder and cannot relax for the next race. Luckily, the Hungarian GP is around the corner and we have to look ahead. It will be a difficult one because the track doesn't suit our car much but we will fight as usual".
Daniel Ricciardo: "It was good to finish. I think we've made a good step from Silverstone but there's still quite a long way to go. It's quite a steep learning curve but I think I've climbed a little bit of that this week. If I can keep this way then I'm sure that in a few races time the progress will be more obvious by, hopefully, finishing a few positions further up".
"If I can make the same step from Silverstone for Hungary then it's going to look more promising. I'm quite happy with the progress".
Colin Kolles, Team Principal: "Of course I would have preferred a two car finish. Tonio had a good race despite brake problems at the start, but was able to maintain a good distance to Heikki Kovalainen. He retired just before two-thirds distance because of an electrical failure. It was a real pity because the team had taken all precautions during the weekend and had a good pace in the race. The pit stops went smoothly".
"On a positive note, Daniel has completed his second solid race in a row. He is making good progress".
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