Toro Rosso driver Jaime Alguersuari stormed through the field at Monza to finish seventh in the Italian Grand Prix.
The Italian Grand Prix finished with some cars in unusual places but what wasn’t odd was seeing Jaime Alguersuari finishing in the points after qualifying 18th. It’s the fourth time in seven that the Catalan has qualified on P18 and gone on to a top-10 finish.
Monza, however, saw him score his best-ever grand prix result, bringing the Toro Rosso STR6 home in seventh position after a conventional two-stop strategy made the most of Toro’s improved DRS to pass several rivals on the long Monza straights.
'The performance from the team with strategy and pitstops has been really sharp'
“I think this is something that we have every Sunday, the setup of the car is really good for the race – the performance is amazing, but it’s not just the performance of the car: also the performance from the team with strategy and pitstops has been really sharp too,” said Jaime.
“Saturday, we’re lacking a lot of speed for whatever reason: DRS, downforce, I don’t know, but during the race what we can say it that our car doesn’t use its tyres as much as the others – in my opinion – and that’s why we keep finishing in the points.”
Alguersuari managed to avoid the pile-up at the Rettifilo chicane, opting to straightline the corner, bypassing the worst of the carnage. Under other circumstances it may have drawn the attention of the stewards but Jaime insists he had little choice: “I couldn’t do anything other than cut the chicane – the track was completely blocked and there was no chance I could get through the corner. There weren’t a lot of options available.”
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With team-mate Sébastien Buemi bringing the second Toro Rosso home in 10th position, Italy’s second team scored their third double-points finish of the year. It consolidates them in eighth position, within striking distance of Sauber (35 points) and Force India (36).
Alguersuari was non-commital over whether Toro can overhaul their rivals. “I think that will be really, really difficult because they’re good teams. Today was a difficult race for them and it won’t always be so. It will be tough to catch them but we will try our best and see what happens.”
As for the curious repetition of doing well from 18th on the grid, Jaime admits that it’s become something of a talking point for the team “Yeah, it’s a thing now isn’t it? Maybe we need to target starting 18th? If it means I can score good points again in Singapore, then I’ll be very happy with that!”
Want more?
- Follow Jaime Alguersuari on Twitter @AlguersuariJA
- Vettel on the Italian Grand Prix
- Official F1 website, formula1.com
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