It was the usual story at Toro Rosso – Jaime Alguersuari impressed but Sebastien Buemi retired after a collision.
But unusually, both their drivers served drive-through penalties for different infringements during the race.
| Sebastien Buemi | Jaime Alguersuari | |
| Qualifying position | 14 | 15 |
| Qualifying time comparison (Q2) | 1’22.191 (-0.016) | 1’22.207 |
| Race position | 10 | |
| Average race lap | 1’30.840 (+2.02) | 1’28.820 |
| Laps | 41/66 | 65/66 |
| Pit stops | 3 | 2 |
Sebastien Buemi
The Toro Rosso pair are increasingly evenly matched in qualifying – Buemi edged his team mate by just 16 thousandths of a second in Barcelona.
But Buemi clashed with Pedro de la Rosa on the opening lap and broke his front wing, forcing him to take a pit stop.
On lap 14 he tried to pass Vitantonio Liuzzi around the outside of turn one as the Force India driver came out of the pits. He had to go over the speed bumps at turn one and cut sharply in front of Jarno Trulli when he re-joined. The stewards handed him a penalty for re-joining the track in an unsafe manner.
After to falling to 17th race he was just beginning to close on Nico Hulkenberg and Nico Rosberg when he suffered hydraulic failure and retired on lap 42.
Compare Sebastien Buemi’s form against his team mate in 2010
Jaime Alguersuari
Alguersuari’s start was simply brilliant, ducking and dodging through traffic to claim ninth place having started 15th.
Unfortunately he lost time in his pit stop with a stuck front left wheel nut. He then got impatient in traffic, swerving in from of Karun Chandhok and breaking the HRT driver’s front wing.
He served a drive-through penalty for the misdemeanour but thanks to Hulkenberg backing up the field behind him he served it without losing a place.
When Lewis Hamilton retired on the penultimate lap Alguersuari was promoted to tenth place, claiming his second F1 points finish.
Compare Jaime Alguersuari’s form against his team mate in 2010
Steezy
10th May 2010, 16:59
To be fair, this team and car is heavily based on the all-conquering Red Bull Racing RB6. It’s a surprise they’re not doing much better then they currently are, IMO.
Stupid move by Alguersari on Chandhok which might be remembered by some should he still be here by India 2011, but a good and probably lucky points haul for him nonetheless.
James
10th May 2010, 17:41
The engine is different, which makes a lot of differences. The RB6 is designed around the Renault engine, the Toro Rosso folks have to assimilate the Ferrari engine into a car built for a different engine.
Algusuari is in his rookie season and I’m sure we’ll see some better performances from him yet. He did very well to finish 10th despite having a drive through as well as coming in for 2 stops in this race.
Dont bash him yet, there is still more to come.
sato113
10th May 2010, 17:46
i think it’s more derived from the RB5. torro rosso are now a separate team in 2010, none of Red Bulls design plans had been passed onto torro rosso this year.
macahan
10th May 2010, 20:48
Correct the STR is derived from the RB5. They took the STR as it stood at the end of the season (basically almost the same as the RB5 but without the last few updates and designed to fit the Ferrari engine and gear box instead of the Renualt setup). The car evolved over the winter but not in the same direction as the RB6 because this year they have to build and develop the car themselves and can’t take help from their bigger sister team. Not sure who is handling the aero development but my understanding it’s no longer Newey.
TommyB
10th May 2010, 21:58
I think they’ve done OK this year, they are almost a new team this year building the car for the first time alone… although STR’s car is basically last years Red Bull but changed to fit the Ferrari engine.
Buemi has been so unlucky, he’s only had one race where it’s not been ruined on lap 1.
Jaime has been brilliant this year and driven very very well. Shame about the Chandhok thing, maybe a little bit of his rookie status coming through there.
Electrolite
10th May 2010, 23:37
Looking at that graph, Alguersuari’s lap times are fairly consistent, which is something saying he’s a rookie. Often with these graphs, when there is a rookie driver and experienced driver, the one with experience has straight lines and the rookie a bit all over the place.
BasCB
11th May 2010, 7:56
looks to me both drivers are doing what they should do, improve a lot and drive consistently. The mistake of driving into Pedro cannot be called a rookie mistake anymore for Buemi, but with his luck this season it was almost bound to happen.
Alugersuari drove impressively. This guy might have a bright future in the RBR team. It helped him, that he really knows where to go on this track, pulling off moves others would not try.
A shame he got impatient with Chandok, as it ruined both their races and lost him 1 or 2 points