10/06/2012
NEWS STORY
A tough weekend for the Marussia F1 Team came to a close in today's Canadian Grand Prix where Charles experienced better luck than in recent races, bringing his car home in 20th place. Timo, on the other hand, was forced to retire after 47 laps with brake issues.
With Timo starting from P22 and Charles from P23, the team executed a 1-stop strategy, with both cars switching from the Pirelli P-Zero Red Supersoft they started with to the Yellow Soft prime tyre on laps 24 and 28 respectively.
Charles Pic: "First of all, I'm happy to finish the race - my first time here - and although it has been a tough weekend, I think from the perspective of the team, and me personally, it has been a good experience to learn where we need to improve. Our pace here has not been good compared to our closest two competitors, so we have to understand more about why that was. For my side, the start went well and we maintained position, then Timo and I had a good race. From there, it was all about looking after the car and getting to the finish. Next stop is Valencia, a track I've raced at before, so I will lose less time to acclimatisation and be able to spend more time preparing the car. I got pole there in GP2 and I have a good feeling for the track - another different type of street circuit - so I think it will suit me and the car much better. Some work in the simulator next week should also help us prepare well."
Timo Glock: "Not a great race for me. In general the first stint was quite okay I think until I suddenly lost power for some reason; I think the engine temperature went quite high. After 14 laps I was suffering quite badly with rear tyre degradation and the combination of the two issues was quite difficult to manage. We had to come in quite early for the pitstop and then I came out in blue flags and was unable to use the new tyre effectively. I could at least recover the ground I lost to Charles and close the gap, but at the end I suffered so much with the brakes; they were getting longer and longer on pressure and it was too dangerous to continue, so I had to retire. This was my first DNF and in general Canada has not been that great for us this year, which is a shame because it's a track I love. Now though I'm looking forward to Valencia and to seeing what we can do to improve there."
John Booth, Team Principal: "Our car and the Montreal circuit have been at odds for much of the weekend and it is frustrating that we were unable to improve that situation for the race today. Nonetheless, we've learned a great deal about the package and where we need to focus our efforts to get us back where we were versus our immediate competitors. We were pleased to bring Charles home after a difficult period for him, but obviously the luck ran out on Timo's side, whom we retired with brake issues for precautionary reasons. We now head back home and on to what we hope will be a better second phase of the European season, where we have a couple of 'home' races coming up for Timo and the team."
Check out our Grand Prix gallery, here.