Virgin: Quiet race for Glock after extending deal

Timo Glock announced an extension of his Virgin contract but had little to celebrate in the race.

He brought the car home in 17th place which was the best available on the day but little use to the team in the championship.

	Timo Glock	Jerome D’Ambrosio
Qualifying position	19	21
Qualifying time comparison (Q1)	1’36.400 (-0.241)	1’36.641
Race position	17	18
Laps	57/60	57/60
Pit stops	2	2

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

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	57	58	59	60
Timo Glock	112.974	103.617	103.003	103.184	103.522	102.153	102.141	102.276	102.709	102.541	102.636	102.476	102.455	102.665	101.856	102.101	102.152	102.632	102.03	101.838	102.113	104.194	120.755	100.573	100.143	101.351	102.033	100.513	100.599	102.042	102.221	100.565	100.448	100.291	100.321	103.315	101.445	100.501	100.274	101.913	102.74	103.491	101.31	100.596	101.674	104.909	102.906	103.554	121.965	101.475	103.199	103.463	105.632	102.879	102.594	102.855	99.982
Jerome dAmbrosio	115.052	104.328	104.33	102.628	102.68	102.437	102.422	102.726	103.017	102.909	102.874	104.576	103.079	103.053	102.363	102.199	102.217	102.16	101.88	102.063	102.429	102.791	105.049	105.15	121.122	102.549	100.898	100.518	100.572	102.972	101.247	103.804	100.787	101.885	101.631	101.297	100.775	101.528	101.966	102.494	103.57	101.303	101.507	100.876	101.251	102.943	100.816	100.494	103.041	126.529	102.736	100.484	101.94	102.026	102.049	100.316	99.787

Timo Glock

With Karun Chandhok taking over for Jarno Trulli at Lotus and Sebastien Buemi picking up a penalty, Glock took Virgin to the rare heights of 19th on the grid.

Buemi came past on lap three, followed by the recovering Nick Heidfeld and Paul di Resta. That left Glock in his usual position, watching Heikki Kovalainen’s Lotus getting progressively smaller, while also being one of several drivers to suffer braking problems.

It’s hard to believe he would have signed up for several further seasons if he expects Virgin to remain at this level.

Timo Glock 2011 form guide

Jerome d’Ambrosio

D’Ambrosio had a race-long battle with Daniel Ricciardo, falling behind the HRT and then re-passing on lap 40.

He finished a creditable ten seconds behind his team mate: “I’m happy about the weekend,” he said.

“I feel like I’m back on the right track and although there’s definitely more improvements I can make, particularly in qualifying, I?��m going in the right direction.

“The last few weekends have been a bit tough and this is the one I’ll be focusing on. I’d like to keep this momentum in Hungary before the break and stay as close as possible to Timo.”

Jerome d’Ambrosio 2011 form guide

2011 German Grand Prix

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16 comments on “Virgin: Quiet race for Glock after extending deal”

Faraz
25th July 2011, 10:31
To me it looks like Timo has no interest in fighting in a competitive car, unless he knows that Virgin are going to challenge for the championship soon.
1. Alfie
  25th July 2011, 10:33
  I think he is a driver that knows most of the good spots are taken and so would much rather aid a back of the grid team develop and become competitive.
  1. Gill
    25th July 2011, 10:37
    Then he should not have signed a long term contract. Soon there will be 2 spots vacant, Michael and Jarno and who knows whats Mark is gonna do in a year or 2.
    1. Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
      25th July 2011, 10:46
      1) Marussia have secured the team’s future until 2014.
      2) Virgin have parted ways with Nick Wirth, and will use more-conventional means of designing their cars.
      3) The team has already finished their development programme for 2011, and are devoting their full attention to 2012.
      4) They have signed a deal with McLaren that allows them access to McLaren’s facilities at Woking.
      So I don’t see why everyone is writing Glock off.
      1. Todfod (@todfod)
        25th July 2011, 12:21
        He is still racing for a team that is going to get beaten by HRT 2 years in a row. And even though Virgin is getting everything in place, it will take them at least 3 seasons to make it to the mid field, and they might never be a front running car. A driver like Glock could have done better.
BasCB (@bascb)
25th July 2011, 10:39
LOL, looks like a funny typo there Keith
With Karun Chandhok taking over for Jarno Trulli at Liuzzi
autocorrect playing up there? Guess we should read that as Lotus.
Glock must be really confident in McLaren helping them and investments going to be made to have signed up for another few years of this.
1. Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
  25th July 2011, 10:46
  Nah, just good old-fashioned brain fade. Fixed it.
  1. BasCB (@bascb)
    25th July 2011, 11:02
    LOL
  2. Fixy (@)
    25th July 2011, 17:40
    just good old-fashioned brain fade
    Hahahaha! Nice one!
2. Steph (@)
  25th July 2011, 11:24
  Glock must be really confident in McLaren helping them and investments going to be made to have signed up for another few years of this.
  I think that it’s also partly because he doesn’t seem to have any other option in F1.
3. Eggry (@eggry)
  25th July 2011, 12:35
  So Liuzzi already take over ownership of Lotus? :D
maxthecat
25th July 2011, 11:42
No other options for Glock and i guess for him being in F1 is more important than being competitive. Lets face it of the new teams only Team Lotus really have a chance of making their way up the grid in the future. I predict HRT and Virgin will be gone by the time the new rules come into effect for the 2014 season.
1. Mike
  26th July 2011, 1:06
  Virgin have a solid foundation, adding to that they from the start of next year will have Mclaren facilities. And then they also have Marussia backing. Have to say, it looks good. Yes this years car wasn’t so great. But hopefully with Wirth gone, they can aim to copy rather than try and invent, as Wirth did.
daykind
26th July 2011, 19:06
Poor poor Timo.
bosyber
26th July 2011, 19:27
I really hope they manage to find a good new direction quickly and will discover some good pace with it. Otherwise HRT will end the year being notably faster. Glock doesn’t have a big amount of other options I think, but to sign for several years you’d think they must have A Plan (which started by getting Wirth out, prompted partly by Glock – he was just too unimaginative it seemed) and means to execute it.
d’Ambrosio doesn’t have much to show for it, but I think he has been doing a pretty solid job so far in difficult circumstances.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
27th July 2011, 22:24
If Nick Wirth was still about it’s hard to imagine that Glock would have signed another long-term contract. Hopefully that’s indicative of better results to come either towards the end of this year or from 2012 onwards.