Virgin did not seem to have an answer for Lotus’s pace at Istanbul – Glock was half a second slower than Jarno Trulli in qualifying.
But the race saw a reversal of the teams’ usual fortunes this year as neither Lotus made the finish and Virgin just managed to get both cars to the chequered flag.
| Timo Glock | Lucas di Grassi | |
| Qualifying position | 21 | 23 |
| Qualifying time comparison (Q1) | 1’30.744 (-1.245) | 1’31.989 |
| Race position | 18 | 19 |
| Average race lap | 1’37.146 (-0.523) | 1’37.668 |
| Laps | 55/58 | 55/58 |
| Pit stops | 1 | 1 |
Open lap times interactive chart in new window
Timo Glock
Glock bogged down at the start and his anti-stall kicked in, allowing Bruno Senna to pass. Glock took the place back on lap 19 but by the Lotuses were ten seconds ahead and he wasn’t able to make any inroads on their progress.
Their retirement left him comfortably ahead in the battle for new team honours until a failure five laps from home left him stuck in fifth gear and without any hydraulics. He dragged the car home and, despite losing over 15 seconds per lap, stayed ahead of his team mate. It might have been a different story had the race lasted two laps longer.
Compare Timo Glock’s form against his team mate in 2010
Lucas di Grassi
Engine problems in qualifying left him 23rd on the grid – and he wasn’t able to take up that place after an oil leak forced last-minute repair work by the team. Despite starting from the pit lane, di Grassi reached the end of the race.
Team principal John Booth paid tribute to the mechanics for getting di Grassi’s car ready in time:
After the power loss issue with the engine yesterday [Saturday], the very last thing we needed just an hour before the race was an issue with the engine oil system, which had us taking the car to pieces to get to the engine when we would have been in the final throes of our race countdown.
On one side of the garage we were calmly executing the grid sequence with Timo, but it was quite a different story on the other side of the garage where the guys were faced with the seemingly impossible odds to get Lucas’ car together and out into the race. They were an absolute credit to us today
John Booth
Compare Lucas di Grassi’s form against his team mate in 2010
2010 Turkish Grand Prix
Mike
31st May 2010, 14:06
A race well done for Virgin, something that has been direly needed for a while now.
Has anyone else noticed, that like all the established teams, the new teams times slowly decrease lap after lap, until about half way that is, I’ve noticed a pattern that while they start out well, by half way, the new teams tend to stutter a bit.
BasCB
31st May 2010, 19:18
Have you considered it might have more to do with constantly having to get out of the way after being shown blue flags than bad pace?
Also technical problems start to get the best of them after mid point i suppose.
Jim
31st May 2010, 17:38
There was another change made by the virgin team between Monaco and Turkey – their Manor Motorsport headquarters in Dinnington now also has Virgin Racing logos on the outside of the buildings.
US_Peter
31st May 2010, 18:13
Interesting that both Virgins made it home while the other 4 new cars all retired. Usually it’s the 2 Virgins. Great result for them.
fyujj
31st May 2010, 18:54
But it was struggling. Glock ended only with fifth gear and Lucas broke the exaust about lap 15, I think, so was even slower.