Both Toro Rossos started in the top ten but were unable to finish there.
| Sebastien Buemi | Jaime Alguersuari | |
| Qualifying position | 9 | 7 |
| Qualifying time comparison (Q3) | 1’36.203 (+0.045) | 1’36.158 |
| Race position | 14 | |
| Laps | 56/56 | 9/56 |
| Pit stops | 3 | 1 |
Toro Rosso drivers’ lap times throughout the race:
| 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 | |
| Sebastien Buemi | 113.957 | 106.887 | 106.293 | 106.229 | 106.042 | 105.624 | 106.496 | 106.765 | 107.471 | 105.931 | 105.85 | 111.511 | 124.246 | 105.125 | 104.81 | 109.174 | 126.328 | 103.21 | 103.322 | 103.268 | 104.044 | 103.385 | 103.518 | 103.597 | 106.208 | 103.561 | 103.201 | 103.642 | 103.85 | 103.923 | 104.163 | 104.824 | 109.612 | 121.671 | 102.156 | 102.151 | 102.107 | 103.956 | 103.023 | 102.187 | 102.18 | 101.856 | 102.246 | 102.351 | 101.696 | 101.722 | 102.449 | 103.362 | 102.153 | 102.203 | 103.142 | 102.933 | 102.948 | 103.798 | 105.22 | 105.32 |
| Jaime Alguersuari | 112.872 | 106.559 | 106.566 | 106.357 | 105.7 | 106.589 | 106.66 | 106.676 | 111.745 |
Sebastien Buemi
Both drivers benefited from setting their Q2 lap times before Vitaly Petrov caused a red flag in his Renault. With many other drivers unable to improve in traffic, Buemi lined up ninth, two places behind his team mate.
But by the end of lap one he was already down to 13th. He made his first pit stop on lap ten and switched to hard tyres. The team noticed some front wing damaged and called him back in four laps later to have it replaced.
He made a third and final pit stop on lap 33, taking on hard tyres once again.
At the end of the race he was running 16th before being promoted two places by the collision between Sergio Perez and Adrian Sutil.
Sebastien Buemi 2011 form guide
Jaime Alguersuari
Started a career-best seventh but dropped to tenth at the start.
Posted the only retirement of the race when his right-rear wheel fell off following his first pit stop.
Daniel Ricciardo
Drove in place of Alguersuari in first practice.
Jaime Alguersuari 2011 form guide
2011 Chinese Grand Prix
Image © Red Bull/Getty images
Oliver
18th April 2011, 13:13
This car has real potential, but I am seriously wondering if the drivers have the tenacity to get the results. OF course driving with 3 wheels isn’t the fault of the driver. But I believe their car to be faster than that of Sauber.
Todfod (@todfod)
18th April 2011, 13:19
Yeah the Toro Tricycle was pretty funny. Nonetheless, bot these drivers blew the start. By turn 1, both the Force Indias had jumped them and lined up behind Fernando. We will never really know the potential of the STR car this year. They need someone like Vettel who in 2008 made the Toro Rosso look a little better than it was. Hopefully, Ricciardo should get a chance to race for them soon..
Neusalz (@dpod)
18th April 2011, 14:24
The current drivers they have arent bad, I dont see why someone like Vettel would be able to do so much better. Who knows, maybe he wouldnt shine either.
bobo
18th April 2011, 16:15
Well if Vettel made the car look better than it really was then we must have known how good it really was… but how? LOL… We have no reason to think these drivers are driving it slowly, we can only see when they make mistakes and when the team messes up the strategy.
Todfod (@todfod)
18th April 2011, 20:21
Picture this.. Vettel = Good driver, Bourdais = Avg. Driver. Now we can tell the true pace of the STR by seeing how drivers of different skill levels maximise the car’s potential.
Now.. Buemi = Alguersuari = ? (We dont know if they are mediocre, bad or good drivers). So now we dont know if they are maximising the car’s potential or just cruising around.
Got the logic?
Fixy (@)
18th April 2011, 14:08
We know how much a driver can make the difference. If there was Vettel in it, he’d be on the podium…
verstappen (@verstappen)
18th April 2011, 13:22
Maybe it’s better for them to start outside Q3, so they’re able to put on fresh tyres and have less to defend from faster cars who are behind.
We’ve seen what fresh tyres brought to Webber and Hamilton. And I think trying to hold your position (which comes naturally I would say for a racer) will fasten degradation of the tyres.
It’s a bit sad if this theme will become recurring: finally we have proper qualifying again for only a few years and now it becomes less important, because it costs you your tyres.
Todfod (@todfod)
18th April 2011, 13:34
I actually like it this way. Grid position had become way too important recently, and it was difficult for drivers to make up positions and overtake. Drivers who are great on Sundays rarely got rewarded.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
18th April 2011, 13:45
Not a good Sunday for STR really was it?
Themselves and Williams have to be the two most uninspiring teams out there it pains me to say.
A decent qualifying session for them and I couldn’t expect them to hang on to those positions with an RB7 and a couple of R31’s not far behind but still, I didn’t expect them to have THAT bad a weekend.
King Six
18th April 2011, 13:46
It’s a shame this team is relegated to being a driver development program for Red Bull and not a serious fully fledged outfit. I think the drivers are letting them down, not that they’re not good…but I think they’re too young and inexperienced to form an entire team around.
They’ve developed a really good car this season, they ought to be beating Sauber and Force India. They have very strong and close ties to the fastest team currently in F1 (RBR) and..but..I dunno. Someone ought to buy them out and let them become a proper F1 team on their own.
Plus I think it’s a sad state of affairs that one company owns two teams on the grid so blatantly. Yet everyone complains about HRT and Virgin, and to a lesser extent Lotus for not adding anything to the sport. It really shows a lack of understanding that many people have.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
18th April 2011, 15:58
that incident with Alguersuari’s tyre was incredibly dangerous!
If the tyre bumped just a meter more to the left, he’d had hit the marshall. And I doubt one could survive to such thing falling from the sky at that speed.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
18th April 2011, 19:49
STR don’t have much look with keeping tyres on cars in China do they?
Adam Tate (@adam-tate)
18th April 2011, 20:20
This is disappointing , STR really have got a good car this year. I love seeing them and Sauber leading the midfield and I hope they will bounce back in Turkey.
Roman
18th April 2011, 20:51
Both Buemi and Alguer are quite good drivers but something is missing in the team, may be a little more support from RBR.
MattHT (@mattht)
18th April 2011, 23:53
Managing to keep one more tyre on the car than last year is some sort of achievement I suppose.
STR were the biggest let downs of the day on Sunday.
bosyber (@bosyber)
19th April 2011, 7:20
Very disappointing Sunday for them I still don’t really know how they lost so much at the start – maybe they aren’t used to having so many good starters behind and around them? Or was Vettel right about that side of the grid?
The tyre coming off was bad – it seems the team might have been under a bit too much stress from starting so high on the grid. Adam Cooper mentioned being at the opening just a few meters away from where the tyre hit the barrier, scary.