HRT: Liuzzi lifts team ahead of Virgin

2011 Canadian GP team review

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Vitantonio Liuzzi gave HRT their best finish of 13th to pass Virgin in the championship

Narain Karthikeyan Vitantonio Liuzzi
Qualifying position 23 21
Qualifying time comparison (Q1) 1’18.574 (+0.15) 1’18.424
Race position 17 13
Laps 69/70 69/70
Pit stops 2 3

HRT drivers’ lap times throughout the race (in seconds):

https://www.racefans.net/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 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70
Narain Karthikeyan 165.975 122.153 124.985 118.214 102.115 102.238 102.678 107.168 109.828 129.942 127.267 117.681 102.707 100.69 99.769 100.628 100.681 101.78 112.99 122.456 110.557 108.222 109.324 127.457 147.512 128.95 121.562 119.993 119.879 120.623 121.152 123.593 117.994 98.873 99.102 128.857 103.027 123.729 117.222 97.582 97.116 96.335 95.826 94.114 96.393 94.488 94.042 95.383 97.772 114.808 110.266 101.09 93.381 90.48 105.713 97.402 95.577 117.064 96.556 91.694 87.184 84.753 83.63 84.233 83.116 83.166 83.351 84.919
Vitantonio Liuzzi 161.65 124.304 125.179 117.846 102.421 101.536 101.763 108.963 128.379 116.65 126.207 117.135 100.45 100.519 99.455 99.442 100.715 102.399 110.383 118.765 112.23 108.666 108.743 130.956 145.948 129.405 122.106 120.258 119.92 120.548 121.858 122.908 127.6 132.117 98.42 106.116 99.041 111.84 115.9 98.309 97.359 95.581 96.405 94.053 94.341 94.805 94.197 94.643 99.463 98.829 120.744 108.995 89.938 88.378 107.199 97.572 95.947 114.784 92.04 85.645 86.279 83.419 83.639 84.179 84.713 85.202 86.845 86.021

Narain Karthikeyan

Qualified ahead of Jerome d’Ambrosio and ran in front of the Virgin and Jarno Trulli in the first half of the race.

Made a bid to pass Timo Glock in the closing laps but was deemed to have cut the track and handed a time penalty which left him 17th and last of the running cars.

Narain Karthikeyan 2011 form guide

Vitantonio Liuzzi, HRT, Montreal, 2011

Vitantonio Liuzzi

HRT brought an exhaust upgrade to this race plus a circuit-specific rear wing – the kind of improvements they had to do without last year.

Liuzzi used them to out-qualify both Virgins but was over a second and a half behind the Lotuses.

Colin Kolles said: “I think it has been proven that we have made a step forward, we qualified ahead of the Virgins and the gap with Lotus is smaller than in previous races and it could’ve been even smaller.

“Tonio was two tenths quicker than in his fastest lap when he spun on his last lap and I assume he could’ve been between two and four tenths quicker if he would have finished the lap”.

Liuzzi brought more cheer to the team in the race. He was 17th with 11 laps to go but passed the two Virgins and profited from two retirements to give the team a best-ever finish of 13th.

That moved them ahead of Virgin in the constructors’ championship. Lotus are ahead of them by dint of having two 13th-placed finishes.

Vitantonio Liuzzi 2011 form guide

2011 Canadian Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
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    24 comments on “HRT: Liuzzi lifts team ahead of Virgin”

    1. Profile Photo

      David-A (@david-a)
      13th June 2011, 15:38

      HRT beating Virgin for the second year in a row!

      1. Profile Photo

        BasCB (@bascb)
        13th June 2011, 15:43

        looks like it might be done again. And still people say they do not belong in the sport!

        Amazing drive by Liuzzi in my opionion.

        1. slr
          13th June 2011, 15:46

          I still don’t believe they belong in the sport, there just filler to me. They show no signs of being at least in the midfield within the next few years.

          1. John H
            13th June 2011, 15:50

            I think the point is that neither do Virgin, and yet HRT seem to get more stick.

          2. dyslexicbunny
            13th June 2011, 16:07

            I agree completely.

            Fantastic drive by Liuzzi in the HRT. I actually was thinking HRT might have jumped Lotus as well but I see they have two 13th finishes and much better beyond that.

          3. Douglas 62500
            13th June 2011, 17:18

            Well I guess that judging from their how they rose from the ashes at the beginning of the year, when they only started modifying the F110 when last season was over, yet now they are eding ahead of Virgin. I guess if they had a better source of finance they should be able to catch up in a few years.

          4. Profile Photo

            AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
            13th June 2011, 22:39

            Someone has to occupy the back!

            1. Macca25
              14th June 2011, 0:06

              I say get of HRT’s back. Red Bull were an absolute joke when they started and now look where they are. No body can come into F1 and have immediate success. Give them time, there not hurting anyone.

          5. Profile Photo

            Mike (@mike)
            14th June 2011, 3:24

            Anyone remember Toyota?

            Give HRT that budget and I’d bet on at least the same results.

            HRT are taking very little and making something of it. This is true competitive spirit.

          6. Profile Photo

            Joey-Poey (@joey-poey)
            14th June 2011, 6:29

            More cars means more fun. Keep ’em in and let another team in, I say.

        2. Profile Photo

          Fixy (@)
          13th June 2011, 15:51

          Liuzzi’s pure awesome. Had he done so more frequently last year, he’d have had a wonderful season.

          1. Profile Photo

            Fixy (@)
            13th June 2011, 15:56

            Liuzzi has won the F1 feeder series (which was F3000), as Rosberg, Hamilton, Glock, Hulkenberg and Maldonado have done (when it was GP2), so it’s no doubt he has talent. He is showing what he can do, but he can do little to save his career. I can’t see him changing to a better team, if not as third/reserve driver.

            1. Patrickl
              13th June 2011, 19:04

              Bourdais also won F3000, so did Björn Wirdheim. So did many others who never amounted to much afterwards.

    2. Lee
      13th June 2011, 16:31

      I have far more time for this team that I do for Virgin

    3. hoshi
      13th June 2011, 16:55

      personally i m pleased with Narain’s performance too..he was only a tenth behind liuzzi in qualifying and actually overtook him in the race..
      he differed with the team’s call to call him to pits when he was doing good times..also he was not informed that they had put slicks on..and thinking he was still on inters..he took to the wet part and lost a chunk of time..

      i think the kind of flak he recieved on this forum pre season..he has proved that he is still India’s best beyond doubt..and comparing him with SAKON..is great injustice to his talent..

    4. Nark
      13th June 2011, 17:40

      Narain Karthikeyan has run Liuzzi close all year, I feel he is doing an admirable job given his experience versus Liuzze’s.

    5. Profile Photo

      wigster (@wigster)
      13th June 2011, 17:48

      Good result for HRT. Their reliability is serving them well in the battle of the 2nd year teams and they’re showing signs of improvement and looking more stable and likely to hang around of late as they can now afford upgrades for their car and are planning wind tunnel time too.

      Hopefully they’ll start to move closer to the back of the midfield and reduce the size of the step down in performance over the next few months.

    6. Q85
      13th June 2011, 19:53

      I think HRT are brilliant. You think virgins pot is huge….if R.Branson will allow them to use much of it is another matter but thats his call, his issue, his team.

      HRT seem to make best of what they have. Bit like minardi.

      Great Result for Liuzzi

    7. Profile Photo

      AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
      13th June 2011, 22:40

      Honestly, I can’t see them giving Lotus a problem but I would love for them to give Fernandes and Gascoyne a run for their money :D

      Well done Tonio, that must be better than a handful of your Force India results last year!

      Also, nice to see HRT haven’t disappeared to the links down the left-hand side of the homepage so soon ;)

    8. Profile Photo

      MattHT (@mattht)
      13th June 2011, 22:45

      My favourite of the three 2010 new teams for sure, and I prefer them to a few teams further up the grid too. Reasonably reliable and a steady driver combo is exactly what they need to keep progressing up the grid. They are not filler, there is no such thing in this game, it’s not an easy sport to compete in and somebody has to be at the back, otherwise we may as well just have a three teams grid.

    9. Profile Photo

      wasiF1 (@wasif1)
      14th June 2011, 3:03

      Was it Narain Karthikeyan who Massa crashed trying to pass him,if I was him I should have had punched the steward for allowing this stupid machine on the race track.

      1. Profile Photo

        BasCB (@bascb)
        14th June 2011, 7:57

        It was.

        1. force f1
          14th June 2011, 11:44

          isn’t it massa’s fault…another driver had just overtaken narain at the corner..he didn’t have any probs

    10. Bleu
      14th June 2011, 14:23

      I think this race meant for the first time as HRT car was running in the points even for one lap. Narain was 9th on lap 35, as several other drivers made their change to inters while he delayed that move.

    Comments are closed.