25/03/2012
NEWS STORY
A rain-soaked and dramatic Formula 1 Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix today provided the Marussia F1 Team with further confirmation, if it were required, of the significant strides the team has made with the development of its 2012 race car, the MR01.
The team enjoyed its second double finish in two season-opening races, with Timo Glock crossing the line at Sepang in 17th place and Charles Pic in 20th, and the Caterham of Heikki Kovalainen providing the meat in the Marussia F1 Team sandwich. The legitimate battle that both of the team's drivers enjoyed with its immediate competitor today underlined that it is back on course and can start pushing ahead in earnest with its development programme.
Timo Glock: "A great weekend again for us. We finished with both cars once more, which is a great achievement for the team and we have to be very happy with that. It was a difficult race but I think we made the right tyre choice and changed at the right time, going from the intermediate to the extreme wets and then after the restart changing back from the extreme wets to the intermediates. Coming in straight away was the right thing to do and I just managed to keep the 'inters' on for as long as possible and keep them alive. Again, we were one of the first to switch to slicks and we were able to keep pushing to keep ahead of Kovalainen, so really well done to the team. Everyone kept cool and calm when the red flag came out. Proper job by the team and specifically my car crew, who've done a great job in the first two races. Now we concentrate on improving again for China."
Charles Pic: "It was a tricky race today in difficult conditions. It was my first time with the extreme wet tyre so it was hard to know the best time to change to the Intermediate at my second pitstop. Then we had a problem with the clutch at the third stop, which is a shame as we lost some time. Overall I am happy with my pace as it was consistent with Timo on the Intermediate and at the end on slicks, which is positive for me. A great job all weekend by everyone in the team as I know it has been very difficult, in many ways. I look forward now to China and even more progress."
John Booth, Team Principal: "A fantastic end to what has been an important weekend for the team. It is extremely encouraging that we are seeing progress in every area, the most significant of which is in terms of performance. The small upgrade that we brought on Friday was the result of some very hard work in the factory over the last few weeks by the aerodynamics department and we have certainly seen the benefit of that here this weekend. However, we can't rest on our laurels and this is now the start of what is going to be a very intensive and exciting development programme for us. It was an interesting race today, with plenty of twists and turns to keep us on our toes, which the race team handled admirably. We were particularly impressed with the way Charles held off Kovalainen for so long, losing out only at the pitstop. Equally worthy of note was Timo's performance in the drying conditions, which was superb. We now look forward to evaluating the findings from these two races so we can come back stronger again in China in three weeks' time."
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