Buemi slips to ninth (STR race review)

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Sebastien Buemi finished eight on the road but was one of the nine drivers to be penalised for going too quickly behind the safety car. That dropped him to ninth behind Fernando Alonso.

Sebastien Buemi Jaime Alguersuari
Qualifying position 11 17
Qualifying time comparison (Q2) 1’38.586 (-0.872) 1’39.458
Race position 9 13
Average race lap 1’46.419 (-0.209) 1’46.628
Laps 57/57 57/57
Pit stops 1 1

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Sebastien Buemi

Buemi was unhappy with himself after being passed by Adrian Sutil during the race and losing another position on the last corner of the last lap to Kamui Kobayashi:

This was not a very good race as I could have finished sixth, but I made two mistakes, which have cost us four points. I am happy to be in the points, but disappointed to have missed out on the opportunity to do better.

As for losing seventh place, I knew Kobayashi was closing very quickly on new tyres, and on the penultimate lap I was blocking my front tyres a lot. But at the final corner, I did not think he could brake that late and so I am unhappy that I made the mistake and let him pass.
Sebastien Buemi

But team principal Franz Tost praised Buemi’s qualifying performance which helped get him in a position to score points:

We have often said we need to improve our qualifying performance if we want to score points on a regular basis and yesterday, Buemi did exactly that to start from eleventh on the grid.
Franz Tost

Compare Sebastien Buemi’s form against his team mate in 2010

Jaime Alguersuari

The best part of nine tenths of a second slower than his team mate in qualifying, Alguersuari started three rows behind Buemi and finished a lowly 15th:

To be honest, I am not really disappointed, because at least the team got points again with Sebastien, so congratulations to him.

This weekend I never had a hundred percent control of the car, never having quite the right feeling with the brakes and that was my main issue. The situation improved slightly during the race, but I never felt the car was mine to do as I wanted.

I have to tell myself that better times will come, just like I had earlier in the season.
Jaime Alguersuari

Compare Jaime Alguersuari’s form against his team mate in 2010

2010 European Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    3 comments on “Buemi slips to ninth (STR race review)”

    1. Strange why Tost has not said anything about Alguersuari after Canada and Valencia race… He didn t do that before… Buemi had also some not very fine and complicated races in first half of the season and Tost always mentioned him and spoke a good word for him… Strange that Alguersuari is having problems after Marko s criticism of Buemi at the end of canadian qualifying… Don t know, if Red Bull is considering a change in drivers lineup for the next year and Buemi s seat was in danger… It is known that Tost really likes Buemi and Marko is more a fan of Alguersuari, so I am really curious what is really going behind the scenes…

      1. I think Helmut does like Buemi but in the end results matter. I also think it’s really unfair if Buemi’s seat was in danger as he’s been involved in many first lap collisions which were not his fault. Jaime’s only outqualified Buemi once this season and to be honest, I still think Jaime is taking some time to get used to F1.

        1. But Buemi was involved in spins and chaos also in last year (races in Valencia, Hungary, Great Britain, for example)… He doesn t belong to great starters at all… Alguersuari was this season 8 times behind him on grid, but only 2 times was behind him on first lap of race… Another thing – Jaime is struggling in qualifying at the moment, but at most when supersoft tyres are used during the weekend (same problem as J. Button), but his race pace is much better…(another similarity with Jenson)… Alguersuari was generally faster then Buemi in Bahrain, Malaysia, Spain and Turkey races, he lost to Buemi on slow and stop and go tracks, exactly as last year… I think Jaime has improved from last year, especially when it comes to race pace… He belongs to the greatest starters on grid (probably with Michael Schumacher) and he is also very reliable, as he finished all 9 races of this season… I hope he will get another chance to drive next year, if not with Toro Rosso, Sauber or Force India would be a nice choice too…

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