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An eventful wet weather
Japanese Grand Prix resulted in both Romain Grosjean and Pastor
Maldonado bringing their cars home, finishing in fifteenth and sixteenth
place respectively.
With the race starting and concluding behind the safety car, the
afternoon’s running was punctuated by red flags and numerous pitstops
before the Grand Prix was ended early following an accident involving
Jules Bianchi.
“Firstly, my thoughts are with Jules and I hope he is not seriously hurt,”
said Romain. “It was a difficult race out there. The start under the
safety car was in very wet conditions when the spray made it difficult
to see and the amount of water on track meant we were aquaplaning a lot,
so it was sensible to red flag the race. After the restart, conditions
were much better, but then the rain returned and it was difficult to be
on the right tyres and find the grip we wanted. The car seemed quite
good at times but we also used up our tyres quite quickly, so it was a
big challenge today.”
Pastor echoed his team-mate’s sentiment, stating: “Most importantly, my
thoughts and prayers are with Jules tonight, I hope he is okay.”
“It was a tricky race from the very beginning,” he continued. “I think
we were doing quite well, trying to anticipate what others would do
strategy-wise, and we recovered some places. There was a big battle at
the back, quite tricky because the visibility was not so good. We were
able to make some good moves, but equally you had to be very careful
about where to push.”
Deputy Team Principal, Federico Gastaldi summarised the day by voicing
the team’s concerns regarding Jules Bianchi, adding: “Our thoughts are
with him, his team and his family. We know the medical personnel will do
everything he needs.”
“The race took place under difficult weather conditions so it was a
challenge for everyone. In terms of our performance, both drivers drove
very well under very trying circumstances to bring both cars home after
numerous visits to the pits.”
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