Following a rocky Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday, Marussia are still set to finish tenth in this year’s Constructors’ Championship. Following on from Timo Glock’s 12th place finish in Singapore, the Caterham of Heikki Kovalainen briefly ran in the points at Suzuka but eventually fell back to 15th spot.
Prior to the race, Glock hit trouble as he clouted a wheel nut in the pit lane.
“We had a bit of a scare on the way to the grid, with Timo rightly stopping the car in the pit lane when he felt what he thought must be a problem with his left-front wheel,” explained Team Principal John Booth. “Once we had the car safely back in the garage, it was clear that he had actually struck a wheel nut lost from another team’s car when he drove down the pit lane. This could have been catastrophic for us as it could have caused a lot of damage, but when we got to the grid we gave the car a thorough inspection and were very lucky to get away with it.
“Timo delivered an excellent performance in the race. As has seemingly been the case for several races, we lost time in the opening stint where not having the benefit of KERS makes it difficult to maintain track position. The remaining two stints were perfect and we managed to eat into Kovalainen to be within four seconds which, by the time we had taken a final blue flag for Hamilton three laps from the end, had opened up to eight seconds, although we can still regard this as an improvement.
“Overall, we have achieved our objectives of staying in touch with the competition in front. We of course need to keep going that extra mile to try get ahead of them in the race, as this will leave us in a more comfortable position in respect of the Constructors’ Championship.”
In 2010 and 2011, Marussia – previously known as Virgin Racing – finished 12th and last in the teams’ table, behind Caterham (formerly Lotus) and HRT.
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John Booth
Timo Glock
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| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  S. Vettel | Red Bull | 1:28:56.242 |
| 2. | F. Massa | Ferrari | +20.639 |
| 3. | K. Kobayashi | Sauber | +24.538 |
| 4. | J. Button | McLaren | +25.098 |
| 5. | L. Hamilton | McLaren | +46.490 |
| 6. | K. Raikkonen | Lotus | +50.424 |
| 7. | N. Hulkenberg | Force India | +51.159 |
| 8. | P. Maldonado | Williams | +52.364 |
| 9. | M. Webber | Red Bull | +54.675 |
| 10. | D. Ricciardo | Toro Rosso | +1:06.919 |
| Full results | |||
| Timo Glock | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| More Timo Glock photos | |||
| John Booth | |||
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| More John Booth photos | |||
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