Scuderia Toro Rosso have proved that one race can make all the difference after they stormed up to seventh in the constructor standings following a marvellous fourth and sixth place finish for
Sebastian Vettel and Vitantonio Liuzzi in China.
Gaining eight crucial points for their troubles,
STR have risen three places in the standings, ahead of Spyker,
Super Aguri and
Honda after a superb performance that combined good strategy with genuine speed.
Going a long way to vindicating himself after the criticism of his exit from the Japanese Grand Prix, Vettel led the team's charge in fourth place to smash the team's previous best result of eighth place at the United States Grand Prix in 2006.
However, while that came about in a race of attrition, both Vettel and Liuzzi managed their feats with strong pace that embarrassed their better funded rivals, including siblings
Red Bull Racing, who had started ahead of them.
For the early part of the race it was Liuzzi that was the team's star driver, getting a great start from 11th place to be running inside the top eight in the early stages, battling with RBR,
Renault and – most significantly –
BMW.
However, while his two-stop strategy saw him slip back slightly in the second half of the race, Vettel's unique one-stop tactic worked perfectly as it saw him pit at the time when the changing conditions demanded a slick tyre.
With others ahead forced to pit, Vettel, who had started 17th following a five-place grid penalty, soared up the leaderboard to fourth place, a position he held to the finish by a superb 15 seconds. A landmark result in only his seventh race, Vettel was thrilled.
“P4! A Fantastic race. In the beginning it was quite difficult, starting in the mid field. For a couple of metres the visibility was okay and then you got all the spray. After the start, I used my momentum to go round the outside of several cars. Even though it was really slippery I took the risk. I kept pushing as hard as I could.
