Virgin Racing technical director Nick Wirth said he was delighted with the team's second two-car finish in the Turkish Grand Prix.
The race marked the first time this season that the team had been able to run both of its drivers in the revised VR-01 although it faced a race against time to get both cars on the grid after the car of
Lucas di Grassi needed a last minute engine change.
Despite that, the Brazilian was able to make it into the race from the pitlane and both drivers made it to the finish despite
Timo Glock suffering a hydraulic issue in the latter stages.
It also left Virgin as the only new team to have a car running at the finish, with Lotus and Hispania both logging a double DNF from the weekend.
"A great reward for the team today after a very stressful pre-race build-up on Lucas' car,” technical director Nick Wirth said. “We had been forced to change Lucas' engine last night after he experienced a large power loss on Saturday that severely compromised his qualifying, and with the Parc Ferme rules, it was only today that we could test the new engine, which exhibited a last-minute oil-system issue.
"Timo's race started badly with an anti-stall on the start, which ultimately compromised his race until he got some clean air at about one third distance. Once things settled down, he started setting some lap times that confirm our general progress - his fastest lap time was only 2.3 seconds slower than the race winner's best lap and comfortably faster than any of the other new teams. Sadly, he experienced a drop in hydraulic pressure near the end, but as we were so far ahead of any of our direct rivals by then, we played it safe and asked him to stay in fifth gear for the last few laps.
"Both drivers did a good job in challenging circumstances, as did the whole team, and to get our second two-car finish of the year is a great feeling, as the more reliability we get, the more performance we can add in the forthcoming races."