“We had been quite open about our difficulties in replicating free practice pace in qualifying, but I was happy to see this trend had been reversed here in Turkey. It was also important for Adrian to get to the chequered flag today, both for himself and for the team, and he had a strong race after he got back out after his accident on the first lap. His middle stint was encouraging as he caught the midfield and, on his final set of tyres, he was able to keep Vettel behind him despite the sustained pressure.
“Of course it is always a shame to see one of our cars out before the first lap, but as I have said before, you have to take risks – this is motor racing. Let’s now look forward to Monaco – a circuit that both drivers love and have performed well on. It will be a good opportunity for us to challenge the teams in front.”
Mike Gascoyne [Force India F1 – chief technical officer]:
“Obviously our race became very difficult after the first three corners, with Giancarlo going off at the first corner and Adrian losing his front wing. With the safety car we were able to get Adrian back out and his first couple of stints were good, particularly the middle one when he was staying with the group in front.
“He was pretty consistent, but once we started to get blue flags it was difficult to keep the temperature in the tyres and that made the last stint very difficult. It was, however, very important for Adrian to get a race finish today, which he did. We now move onto the next race in Monaco, a track that both drivers have performed well on.”
Franz Tost [Scuderia Toro Rosso – team boss]:
“Both our drivers got good starts, but on the first lap Vettel was hit by another car, got a puncture and had to pit to change tyres. After that he was having a reasonable race, but when he came in for his scheduled stop, unfortunately there was a problem with the refuelling rig and he had to be called in again next time round, as no fuel had gone into the car. This cost him over 20 seconds, but at least he finished the race.
