A problem on the pit wall made life difficult for Virgin in Japan.
“Early in the race we suffered a problem with our timing information on the pit wall,” said team principal John Booth. “Unfortunately this was at a critical time in the tyre life-cycle, so we really had to think on our feet.”
| Timo Glock | Jerome D’Ambrosio | |
| Qualifying position | 21 | 20 |
| Qualifying time comparison (Q1) | 1’36.507 (+0.068) | 1’36.439 |
| Race position | 20 | 21 |
| Laps | 51/53 | 51/53 |
| Pit stops | 3 | 3 |
Virgin drivers’ lap times throughout the race (in seconds):
| 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 | |
| Timo Glock | 114.73 | 105.609 | 104.981 | 105.24 | 104.82 | 104.871 | 104.784 | 105.14 | 104.783 | 105.323 | 105.939 | 108.976 | 126.462 | 103.86 | 103.626 | 104.287 | 103.874 | 103.771 | 106.99 | 122.947 | 104.69 | 104.504 | 115.717 | 125.713 | 142.492 | 151.827 | 109.022 | 106.524 | 104.584 | 102.944 | 103.012 | 103.265 | 103.227 | 103.173 | 103.903 | 106.545 | 121.94 | 101.941 | 102.732 | 101.944 | 102.015 | 102.778 | 103.925 | 102.914 | 101.949 | 101.704 | 103.971 | 102.931 | 103.123 | 101.992 | 103.103 | ||
| Jerome dAmbrosio | 114.198 | 105.676 | 104.821 | 105.088 | 104.696 | 104.552 | 104.838 | 104.861 | 104.968 | 105.095 | 105.854 | 105.263 | 109.379 | 124.427 | 103.181 | 103.661 | 103.351 | 103.413 | 103.434 | 103.415 | 103.441 | 103.514 | 113.296 | 149.17 | 146.719 | 153.717 | 107.235 | 108.653 | 105.286 | 102.791 | 103.014 | 102.832 | 103.219 | 102.928 | 103.195 | 104.464 | 107.146 | 122.623 | 101.922 | 103.725 | 102.174 | 102.727 | 103.128 | 102.267 | 101.794 | 102.392 | 102.981 | 102.973 | 103.205 | 102.809 | 102.881 |
Timo Glock
| Start tyre | Soft |
| Pit stop 1 | Soft 25.563s |
| Pit stop 2 | Soft 21.726s |
| Pit stop 3 | Medium 22.877s |
Glock lost time with a water leak on Friday and was out-qualified by D’Ambrosio.
He spent much of the race behind his team mate, grappling with tyre wear and losing more time with a slow pit stop:
“I had a good start, got on the outside and managed to get Jerome in the first part of the first two corners. I nearly hit [Jarno] Trulli; he pushed me out and I went out on to the grass and unfortunately couldn?óÔé¼Ôäót stay on track, so I lost position again and was behind Jerome.
“I was stuck behind him for the first stint, which destroyed my tyres in the first five or six laps because I was a bit quicker than him and then he started to pull away. We went for an early pitstop but the right rear tyre didn?óÔé¼Ôäót go on well and I lost 4-5 seconds, the position against Ricciardo and then Jerome was able to pull quite far away.”
He recovered to finish the race just in front of his team mate.
Jerome d’Ambrosio
| Start tyre | Soft |
| Pit stop 1 | Soft 23.013s |
| Pit stop 2 | Soft 22.258s |
| Pit stop 3 | Medium 24.269s |
D’Ambrosio produced a surprising late effort to out-qualify Glock for only the third time this year.
Team principal John Booth praised his effort: “After probably one of Jerome?óÔé¼Ôäós more challenging Fridays, he spent a lot of time last night going through the data with his engineers to see where he needed to improve.
“Throughout FP3 he did an impressive job to close the gap to Timo and into qualifying he had a good second run to finish 0.07s ahead of him.”
He fell behind Glock in the final stint as his team mate switched to medium tyres a lap earlier than him and jumped ahead, aided by D’Ambrosio losing more than a second in the pits.
Jerome d’Ambrosio 2011 form guide
2011 Japanese Grand Prix
Image ?é?® Virgin Racing
verstappen (@verstappen)
10th October 2011, 10:34
D’ambrosio Does à decent job. But nothing more. Hè doesn’t stand out positively or negative.
Still, for next year, I think Virgin needs fresh blood. Someone who beats Glock on à regular basis. Maybe Sutil?
For it seems that this silly season Will be about Kubica, Renault and money. So it wouldn’t surprise me if Sutil Has to look outside FI.
S.J.M (@sjm)
10th October 2011, 11:31
Im not sure. I think they need stability now they have gotten their car to be reliable. d’Ambrosio might not be world class, but he’s been pretty solid in a car thats not been quick, and (in my opinion) has done better then Di Grassi last year. Whether Virgin can afford to pay 2 drivers, I dont know. Virgin could do worse then keeping him.
Mike (@mike)
10th October 2011, 13:09
Do the Torro Rosso drivers have contracts for next year? If not they could capitalize on that should something happen.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
10th October 2011, 13:41
@sjm @verstappen I agree with S.J.M, I think D’Ambrosio is doing a good job. It’s difficult to know whether or not he’s doing better than di Grassi did as undoubtedly their reliability has improved this year. D’Ambrosio is performing relatively well to his team mate and that’s all you can really measure him on.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
10th October 2011, 13:42
Probably the most boring team on the grid, nothing much happens with them! Nevertheless, they weren’t the only ones caught out with tyres so fair play to them for beating HRT still.
Eggry (@eggry)
10th October 2011, 14:37
yeah, they might be faster than HRT but less show…
Fixy (@)
10th October 2011, 19:35
Well, of course they are, they haven’t got Tonio! And the Red-Bull protege Ricciardo.
Deurmat (@deurmat)
10th October 2011, 16:02
DC said something in the lines of this about DiResta and himself: that beating your more experienced teammate at this track was something he didn’t manage for many years in his career. And that a rookie driver that could beat his teammate at this track was someone to watch…
BasCB (@bascb)
10th October 2011, 17:07
These are the moments when drivers show what they are made of. A tought friday meaning he had only data gathered to go by. But he makes it to outqualify Glock!
A bit strange the team did not change them around early on when Glock was stuck behind him though.