Red Bull Racing won the Constructor’s Championship in Korea but that had been a foregone conclusion for some time. Down the order, however, battles for the minor placings are going to the wire and are just as critical for the smaller teams.
The difference between seventh and eighth might not seem like much in the grand scheme of things, but there’s a great deal of pride – and a greater deal of money – at stake. And so, after a bad weekend in Japan, Toro Rosso really needed a fillip in Korea. They got it thanks to an excellent drive to ninth place from Sébastien Buemi and a stellar performance from Jaime Alguersuari to steal seventh with a last-gasp overtaking move on Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes. Even better for Faenza’s Finest, Sauber, their nearest rivals, failed to trouble the scorers.
'I was pushing so hard, I really wanted that place!' – Jaime
It was Toro’s fourth double points finish of the season and its best result all year. Having dropped from 13th to 18th on the first lap, Sébastien recovered from a difficult start to finish ninth, but the star of the show was Jaime. The young Catalan also dropped a place off the line, falling to twelfth, but recovered to finish seventh, equalling his best F1 result. Through the traps, Toro were recording the highest speeds of any team and Jaime used that to his advantage to pass both Force Indias. He then benefitted from Michael Schumacher and Vitaly Petrov having a coming together to move up to eighth, and stayed there for most of the race, however in the closing stages he caught Nico Rosberg and, following a sustained period of pressure, made a brilliant pass stick on the final lap.
“I was pushing so hard, I really wanted that place!” said a jubilant Jaime after the race. “I knew I was fast enough to overtake him in a straight line, so I decided to release all of my KERS energy after Turn One, and with the benefit of DRS I managed to get by. I knew that in sector two he was a bit faster than me so I was pushing right from the beginning [of the lap]. At the end it worked for me because of the DRS and because he made a small mistake after turn one.”
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'I don’t see us getting the better of Ferrari, McLaren or Red Bull so for us it was like winning a race' – Jaime
Toro endured a torrid Japanese Grand Prix seven days ago and failed to score, though Alguersuari claimed it was the work done at Suzuka that enabled the STR6 to look so competitive in Yeongyam.
“We had an evolution of the car in Suzuka for Friday practice, and had really competitive pace, what I’d like to think is our true competitive pace – but we didn’t keep those parts on the car for the weekend because we didn’t fully understand them, so we weren’t able to get the best out of the car in Japan which is why it was a disaster for me and for the team. But we came here with the same parts: we understood them better as we had more data, a little more time and a little more experience – and everything went perfectly.”
Alguersuari claimed the result as his best in Formula One, not specifically for the placing – though seventh equals his best previous finish – but because the only cars ahead were those of the three teams that have won races this year.
“For us, we know we can’t win a race but P7 is the maximum we could hope to achieve. I don’t see us getting the better of Ferrari, McLaren or Red Bull – and I’m surprised we were able to get the better of a Mercedes – so for us today was like winning a race, and to pull off an overtaking manoeuvre on the last lap to do it was fantastic. I don’t know what I said coming over the line, but I think I sounded very happy!”
With 37 points Toro Rosso are three behind Sauber with three races left to run.
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