Sunday: Petrov brings back a point, Senna takes out Schumacher
After a good qualifying session, Bruno Senna hoped to shine in front of his home crowd today. But the Brazilian did not succeed, and his race was difficult. He collided with Michael Schumacher, had to pit to change his front wing, then was penalized for the incident with the Mercedes driver, and eventually had gearbox problems. On the other hand, Vitaly Petrov had a great race starting from 15th place. The Russian finished 10th, allowing LRGP to score an additional point this season.
Vitaly Petrov – 10th
« It’s really good to finish with a point, which is a good response after my qualification yesterday. My start was good, and my speed wasn’t too bad, and I was happy with the car. We came in quite early, and I think we lost time behind the two Toro Rossos because it was very difficult to overtake them. I lost a lot of time because of that, and without it, I think I could have finished ahead of Kamui Kobayashi, and it would have been much better to finish 9th than 10th. »
« Our stops were better, including one that was very good – my mechanics have worked very well throughout the season. I would have liked to score more points this year. It hasn’t been a fantastic season but I want to thank the whole team for supporting me and believing in me. Next year will be a new season and I hope we can work even better together and achieve better results. »
Bruno Senna – 17th
What can I say – it has been a tough day and my overall feeling is disappointment. I started the race in a very good position and I hoped to capitalize on it afterwards. There were many events that prevented us from having a good race, the incident with Michael and gearbox problems. I would have loved to give my fans something to cheer about, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case.
Eric Boullier – Director of the LRGP team
«We can take some positives from today. At first glance, finishing 10th and 17th might not seem enough, but we scored a point in this last race of the season. Vitaly did this for us after starting 15th on the grid, so that needs to be highlighted – he had a very good race. Bruno was unfortunate not to do better in front of his fans. The team has put in a lot of effort again this weekend, and I really want to thank everyone.»
