Virgin: D’Ambrosio spins in the pits

2011 Hungarian GP team review

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Jerome D’Ambrosio caused alarm by spinning in the pits during the race.

Timo GlockJerome D’Ambrosio
Qualifying position2024
Qualifying time comparison (Q1)1’26.294 (-0.216)1’26.510
Race position1719
Laps66/7065/70
Pit stops34

Timo Glock

Glock was happy with his car on Friday but his progress was disturbed by the change of conditions on Saturday: “The wind picked up this morning and it felt like it just blew our car off the track a little bit,” he said.

“It was very difficult this morning as I had no balance and I really had to work around the set-up.”

He made a great start from 20th to take 17th. But once DRS was enabled he was quickly passed by Adrian Sutil, Nick Heidfeld, Sergio Perez and Jarno Trulli.

From there on he ran in his customary place in front of his team mate and the two HRTs, claiming 17th after the Lotuses retired.

Timo Glock 2011 form guide

Jerome D'Ambrosio, Virgin, Hungaroring, 2011

Jerome d’Ambrosio

Slipped to last place in qualifying, beaten by both the HRTs. But he was only two-tenths off Glock, and said he was “quite close to the car’s full potential”.

D’Ambrosio got in front of the HRTs at the start but switching to intermediates during the rain later on cost him the place.

He compounded the error by losing control of his car in the pit lane, mercifully not hitting any waiting mechanics.

D’Ambrosio admitted it was “definitely not my best race.

“I’m disappointed really, but the conditions were very tough out there. I had a very good start to the race and I was happy about that but I made an error when the rain came, choosing to stop for intermediates when I probably should have stayed out on slicks.

“So I lost a lot of time with the pit stops and I also had a tough moment when I spun in the box when I came in, although thankfully the car didn’t hit anyone.”

Jerome d’Ambrosio 2011 form guide

2011 Hungarian Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
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12 comments on “Virgin: D’Ambrosio spins in the pits”

  1. This is probably why some limited testing should be allowed. How many competitive pit stops will he have had?

    I’m actually surprised this doesn’t happen more often with the blue painted line and wet weather.

    1. How would testing involve “competitive” pit stops?

      They do pit stop practices throughout race weekend.

      1. I understand that He’s probably done all of what 15?

        You don’t think a day of 50 pitstops wouldn’t help a rookie out?

  2. It’s takes a a lot of skill to spin a car with a locked throttle going along at 60 ;D

    1. Still faster than what you do in your road car.

  3. spin in the pits!

  4. Young D’Ambrosio was only 0.2 seconds from Glock

    A great rookie performance, compared with Glock.

    2 cars between them made Jerome look bad though

    WAY better than Di Grassi

    1. Fernando Cruz
      1st August 2011, 19:31

      Well, we’ ll see how he compares with Glock in Spa, where di Grassi was the quicker of the Virgin men last year.

      Don’ forget d’ Ambrosio is only here because of more sponsorship than the brazilian could achieve and di Grassi results in GP2 were also far better. The belgian was only 12th in GP2 championship last year!

      Also we have to notice that last year Glock tended to have the best parts as there was not enough for both cars. Even so the belgian is not doing better than the brazilian did last year and is often beaten by the HRTs.

      Overall I think di Grassi was a better driver. Not everyone can beat Kubica and Vettel as di Grassi did in Macau GP 2005.

  5. Pretty nice moves from D’Ambrosio, his mechanics looked confused to say the least!

    I imagine Ricciardo is going to be a good benchmark for D’Ambrosio if he doesn’t pull his socks up.

  6. I was actually hoping that FIA wouldn’t impose a penalty for Jerome for the spin..

  7. D’Ambrosio took a risk changing to intermediate when it started to rain a little again. I guess this decision would have made him look a lot better if the rain really broke through.

  8. The spin was dangerous, but the mechanics reacted quickly enough, luckily for them.

Comments are closed.