Ricciardo Just Misses Out On Points

It was 'A Tale Of Two Drivers' in the Scuderia Toro Rosso camp during the European GP. Jean-Eric Vergne had a race to forget topped off by a penalty assessed against him, to be imposed at the British GP. Daniel Ricciardo, on the other hand, looked to be a legitimate contender for championship points. In the end, however, he had to nurse a potentially damaged car to the finish line just outside the top ten.

Having started the race on the Prime tire, Vergne would not make his usual charge through the next few rows of cars in the early laps, which left him in the sites of Heikki Kovalainen's Caterham on Lap 26. Both drivers went for the same spot in the same corner, which didn't work out so well for the Frenchman's STR7: Kovi was able to keep going. Jean-Eric was called to the Racing Steward's office, where he was given a ten grid spot penalty and a 25,000 Euro fine for the incident.

For his part, Daniel was having a pretty decent race, thanks to the squad's tire strategy. The Aussie found himself up as high as the 3rd spot a one point, but a Safety Car deployement (for debris) at an inopportune time shuffeled him back to mid-pack once again. Ricciardo was working his way back towards the points paying spots when he had a late-race collision with Vitaly Petrov that sent his STR7 momentarily airbourne, bouncing sideways as it came down. He would regather the car and continue on, although he must have been worried about possible suspension damage. Daniel would finish in 12th, but a post-race penlaty given to Pastor Maldonado would move him up to the 11th spot.

Here are the drivers' post-race comments:

Daniel Ricciardo (11th):

  "The final result of the race is disappointing. I think I drove well and the team deserved better. Apart from my finish position, it was a really good race. I had a good getaway off the line, passing a couple of cars. But the opening lap was a bit of a mess and as I tried to overtake some cars down the inside, Perez got me round the outside.  My first stint was strong and I was in touch with our competitors, then the second stint was also good. The Safety Car did not really work in our favour. After my second stop I was pushing to the end and I had Petrov going quite slowly in front of me, I went to get around him and he defended by going a bit wide. So I tried to switch back and I feel I gave him some racing room, but we still made contact because perhaps his move was a bit too aggressive. Anyway, that cost me a chance to get into the points, but there were some positives to take away from this race, even if they are not so visible from the outside."

Jean-Eric Vergne (DNF):

"It's a big shame not to finish the race as I was picking up my pace on the Option tyre, having started on Prime and it also means it's my first retirement this season. As for the incident with Heikki, I felt I was ahead and as I started to turn into the corner, we collided and his front wing clipped my rear wheel and there was too much damage to the floor and it was impossible to change the damaged rear wheel so there was no way for me to continue. I think it was just a racing incident."