27/05/2012
NEWS STORY
The Marussia F1 Team's Monaco Grand Prix got off to a flying start and continued that way for much of a race that saw Timo Glock equal his highest finish of the season, P14. However, in a more disappointing conclusion, a broken front wing end plate necessitated one more stop than his planned strategy and dropped Timo back in the race and the team down in the Constructors' Standings.
The race also ended frustratingly for his team-mate Charles Pic, who suffered an electrical problem on lap 65. Prior to that he had been enjoying improved pace in race trim after a more challenging early part of the weekend.
Timo Glock: "A bit of a disappointing end to a race that started so well. We had good speed at the beginning and for the first 10 laps I could stick with Jenson quite well. We had good pace all the way until maybe the last quarter when the front wing end plate broke. We don't know for sure why; maybe because of the touch with Perez early in the race. We will have to see what caused it. Generally happy with my performance and that of the team, but disappointing to hold on to 10th place for so long and now drop back. That's racing though and not for long we have to hope. Now we focus on Canada and look forward to some better luck."
Charles Pic: "Not a great race for me, but to be honest not our best weekend all round on my side. We held out for some forecast rain but this did not come, so we were not able to try to take advantage. Our pace was better in the race than the rest of the weekend, but in the end I had to stop early due to an electrical problem. After a strong run in the first five races I am a little disappointed, but we hope for better things in Canada."
John Booth, Team Principal: "This has been a disappointing race all round for us in terms of how it concluded. Unfortunately, given the way the race played out at the end, despite Kovalainen's front wing change the problems on both our cars meant that he was able to retain 13th position, which means we have slipped back from 10th place in the Championship. However, looking at the positives, the race pace on both our cars was good and Timo was in line to finish without being lapped. It was therefore very frustrating that he lost his right front wing end plate in the Swimming Pool section. We have yet to determine how this happened, although a likely scenario is damage incurred at some other point in the race that weakened the end plate and it eventually came off. For Charles, unfortunately he retired on lap 65 due to a chassis related electrical issue which caused the engine to stop. We will take the lessons we've learned from this weekend and apply them positively as we prepare for the next race and beyond."
Check out our Grand Prix gallery, here.