Sunday: Ricciardo ahead of Vergne at Toro Rosso
A relatively anonymous race for the two Toro Rosso drivers. However, Daniel Ricciardo managed to get the better of Jean-Eric Vergne, who started higher up on the grid but was entangled in tire issues during the race.
Daniel Ricciardo – 15th:
I had a relatively good start by overtaking a few cars. After that, I tried to stay in contact with Di Resta by attempting to stay close enough to him to remain in the DRS zone for a few laps. But then, I gradually started to fall behind and we can clearly say that we didn’t have the pace today to fight with our rivals.
The first stint with the Soft tires wasn’t too bad apart from some balance issues. We managed to improve the car during the race afterwards, but for the last stint with the Mediums, it took some time for the tires to work, and maybe my settings were too conservative for the start of the stint, as we had a better pace at the end of it. I think we couldn’t have done much better than that today.
Now it’s vacation time, and I hope we will come back stronger at Spa.
Jean-Eric Vergne – 16th:
I really got off to a good start by overtaking the two Saubers and a Force India, which then pushed me wide in the first corner. So I lost a few positions and found myself behind the Caterhams. I then passed both of them and ended up behind Kobayashi and then Daniel [Ricciardo], who was a bit faster than me since I had started with worn Soft tires while he had new ones.
When I made my pit stop to put on new Soft tires, I came out behind Kobayashi and stayed behind him for the entire stint, which was unfortunate because during that time Daniel was pulling ahead while I felt I could go much faster.
Towards the end, my pace wasn’t good and I had to make an unexpected fourth stop because there was debris in a pontoon which caused an overheating problem. Without that, I would have been just behind or just in front of Daniel. The holidays? I’d rather be racing!
