Virgin two seconds off Lotus's pace

Virgin were not far off Lotus’s pace in the first race at Melbourne.

But the growing gap between them was made clear when Jarno Trulli easily passed Timo Glock at the start.

	Timo Glock	Jerome d’Ambrosio
Qualifying position	21	22
Qualifying time comparison (Q1)	1’40.648 (-0.353)	1’41.001
Race position	16
Laps	54/56	42/56
Pit stops	2	2

Virgin drivers’ lap times throughout the race:

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/charts/2011drivercolours.csv

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38	39	40	41	42	43	44	45	46	47	48	49	50	51	52	53	54	55	56
Timo Glock	121.234	110.257	109.443	108.197	107.944	108.006	108.357	108.397	107.885	108.355	108.402	108.392	110.405	109.144	109.046	109.134	112.268	128.467	106.965	107.344	107.141	108.282	107.213	107.786	107.04	106.728	106.718	106.066	106.591	107.349	110.027	108.38	106.974	111.188	127.482	105.628	105.704	105.811	106.106	108.488	107.765	106.324	105.975	106.587	106.403	107.409	107.345	106.686	108.279	105.357	107.428	107.891	107.208	107.36
Jerome dAmbrosio	122.159	110.009	109.235	108.224	108.518	108.273	108.398	108.591	108.757	108.412	109.631	110.399	109.478	109.57	110.284	110.8	114.904	131.736	106.061	106.07	106.011	106.566	107.576	106.907	106.878	106.248	106.8	107.499	108.162	107.591	107.906	107.956	108.51	108.938	113.353	127.135	107.07	105.681	105.441	105.53	105.346	105.658

Timo Glock

Glock was a full two seconds slower than Heikki Kovalainen in qualifying.

He got ahead of Trulli at the start, but admitted: “I was only able to defend the position for so long before he was able to get past.” Trulli came past him on lap three and pulled away at more than a second per lap.

Trulli had a slow first pit stop and dropped back behind Glock, but was once again able to catch and pass him with ease.

He was at least able to post his first of the year in 16th but was a lap behind Kovalainen.

Timo Glock 2011 form guide

Jerome d’Ambrosio

D’Ambrosio suffered a right-front suspension failure in the first practice session on Friday, which sent him into the gravel at the final turn. He missed the second session while repairs were being made.

Nonetheless he qualified four-tenths of a second behind his team mate on the 11th row. He kept pace reasonably well, and was within ten seconds of Glock when he was forced to retire on lap 43. He hit a kerb too hard, causing the ignition to cut out.

Jerome d’Ambrosio 2011 form guide

2011 Malaysian Grand Prix

Browse all 2011 Malaysian Grand Prix articles

17 comments on “Virgin two seconds off Lotus’s pace”

BasCB (@bascb)
11th April 2011, 13:12

At least they had no trouble getting into the race in the first place. Reliability does not look as much better so far, although the problem in the race was more down to driver error.

Wirth, try something fresh and make a leap in speed!

Henry
11th April 2011, 14:03

Like a wind-tunnel!

Initially, early 2010, I was hoping for the best for Virgin, I really thought it would be great to try an alternative strategy for F1. But, it is a foolish man who refuses to admit that he has made a mistake, and surely after the end of this season virgin either have to get out of F1 or admit that they tried, gave it a good try, but failed nevertheless. No shame in trying something different and failing, but there is shame in beating a dead horse once it has been shown to fail…
1. BasCB (@bascb)
  11th April 2011, 18:28
  
  A windtunnel will not help them much without clever ideas of what to put in it, will it?
  
  They need some clever ideas to make a leap, or alternatively do some good copying.
  CFD is OK, but the ideas are not coming through.

AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
11th April 2011, 13:30

A pretty average result from them really and I think they will be looking at HRT over their shoulder much more than they were last year.

Icthyes (@icthyes)
11th April 2011, 13:51

Cut Virgin some slack guys, they’re proving more able than Williams to keep their cars going in the race. That won’t last forever but this isn’t an easy game.

Steph (@)
11th April 2011, 17:00

I agree and very well said Icthyes. I think they’ve done well to try to solve their reliability issues from last year.

moose
11th April 2011, 14:10

if HRT able to catch up with them in Turkey, it’s clear they need some time in Wind tunnel to verify their aero.

Aetost (@aetost)
11th April 2011, 14:15

I doubt the HRT has seen the inside of a wind tunnel as well…
I don’t think CFD is the major reason behind this car’s shortcomings.
1. gnvour (@)
  11th April 2011, 14:26
  
  I think I read somewhere HRT made a deal with Mercedes to use one of their wind tunnel, not sure when they will start using it though

Mouse_Nightshirt (@mouse_nightshirt)
11th April 2011, 14:12

Of all this mess I feel most sorry for Glock. He’s a decent driver, well beyond the car that Virgin are providing him with.

Fixy (@)
11th April 2011, 14:54

So is Trulli. And he beat Glock at Toyota in 2008 & 2009.
1. James
  11th April 2011, 15:07
  
  Trulli has had his day though. He wasnt an exciting driver to watch when he had his time in Renault and Toyota. Glock is a better driver, ok, he isnt a great, but someone that deserve to be further up the field. He hasnt had a chance to prove himself.
bosyber
11th April 2011, 15:21

I think d’Ambrosio also did a solid job with the car he got. Really, it doesn’t matter if they use a windtunnel or CFD, they need to start actually developing ideas to get more downforce on the car.
Andy c
11th April 2011, 21:31

Timo chose to go to virgin. I was surprised he went there and I still think he’s capable of higher results that he will get in the mvr.

Perhaps a solid candidate to replace jarno atteam lotus.