Sunday: Petrov brings two points to Renault at Suzuka
The Lotus Renault team aimed to place both its drivers in Q3 this weekend at Suzuka, an objective that was achieved yesterday, and the team hoped to legitimately see both drivers finish in the top 10 and score significant points at Suzuka. However, while Vitaly Petrov managed to score points, Bruno Senna experienced a difficult race and finished far back in 16th position. The two points scored by the Russian allow the British team to slightly increase its lead over Force India in the constructors' championship.
Vitaly Petrov – 9th
«We started the race on medium tires, and I did everything I could to maintain my position at the start against those on softs around me. I had a lot of wheel spin, so with these tires, it was a good start – if I had started on softs, I could have gained positions. In the race, it was difficult to know how well the strategy was working, and it was a real challenge during my first two stints to fight against those on soft tires. In the end, our goal was to finish ahead of Force India, and we succeeded. When I switched to soft tires towards the end of the race, I felt I had more grip; I was smiling while pushing like never before! Then I overtook I don’t know how many cars. It’s a shame that Sergio (Perez) was a bit too far ahead. We will now head to Korea aiming for another top 10 finish.»
Bruno Senna – 16th
In my view, the race was disappointing given my very good starting position, which promised a promising race. Vitaly squeezed me a little in the second corner, and it was tricky to come back afterward. For the rest of the race, I had a lot of traffic and my tires were degrading very quickly. Overall, I think we can learn from this weekend. Despite the limited track time before the qualifying session yesterday, I managed to qualify in Q3 and we certainly seemed stronger during these three days than in Singapore. Hopefully, I’ll be back in the points in Korea.
Eric Boullier – Director of the LRGP team
«First of all, it is good to be back in the points. We had a different strategy from most of the teams and it worked quite well for Vitaly, but not so much for Bruno who had to deal with a lot of traffic. Unfortunately, the safety car didn’t help us either, but at least we have two more points to continue pushing back the threat of Force India in the constructors’ championship. Finally, on behalf of the entire team, I would like to congratulate Sebastian Vettel on his second world champion title.»
