Difficult Day At The 2014 Japanese Grand Prix

An eventful wet weather Japanese Grand Prix resulted in both Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado bringing their cars home, finishing in fifteenth and sixteenth place respectively.

With the race starting and concluding behind the safety car, the afternoon’s running was punctuated by red flags and numerous pitstops before the Grand Prix was ended early following an accident involving Jules Bianchi.

“Firstly, my thoughts are with Jules and I hope he is not seriously hurt,” said Romain. “It was a difficult race out there. The start under the safety car was in very wet conditions when the spray made it difficult to see and the amount of water on track meant we were aquaplaning a lot, so it was sensible to red flag the race. After the restart, conditions were much better, but then the rain returned and it was difficult to be on the right tyres and find the grip we wanted. The car seemed quite good at times but we also used up our tyres quite quickly, so it was a big challenge today.”

Pastor echoed his team-mate’s sentiment, stating: “Most importantly, my thoughts and prayers are with Jules tonight, I hope he is okay.”

“It was a tricky race from the very beginning,” he continued. “I think we were doing quite well, trying to anticipate what others would do strategy-wise, and we recovered some places. There was a big battle at the back, quite tricky because the visibility was not so good. We were able to make some good moves, but equally you had to be very careful about where to push.”

Deputy Team Principal, Federico Gastaldi summarised the day by voicing the team’s concerns regarding Jules Bianchi, adding: “Our thoughts are with him, his team and his family. We know the medical personnel will do everything he needs.”

“The race took place under difficult weather conditions so it was a challenge for everyone. In terms of our performance, both drivers drove very well under very trying circumstances to bring both cars home after numerous visits to the pits.”