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Belgian Grand Prix, Spa-Francorchamps

The two Toro Rossos out after 6 laps

It was not a good racing day in the Ardennes for

Toro Rosso. Both Sébastien Buemi and Jaime

Alguersuari saw their race prematurely stopped,

the Swiss after 6 laps and his co-driver during the

first lap. It was a frustrating day after an

exceptional Saturday qualifying performance with

the Spaniard reaching Q3 and placing his Toro

Rosso in the 3rd line of the grid with the 6th time.

Buemi, whose name appeared regularly high in

the timing system at the start of qualifying, missed

Q3 to end up in 11th position at the start of the

Belgium Grand Prix.

Sébastien made a repeat performance of his blistering start in Hungary last month, and reached 6th position after a few bends, following the pace of Alonso and Hamilton. But on lap 6, he was knocked out by the Sauber of Perez and was forced to retire with a broken back wing. “Perez tried to pass me and simply drove into the back of me, which completely destroyed my rear wing and I had no option but to bring the car back to the pits” said the Vaudois.

It was the same scenario for Alguersuari who, going into the hairpin after the start, was hit by Senna who completely missed his braking point, according to the Spaniard. “Both our drivers had very short races”, commented Franz Tost, Toro Rosso team principal, “before being knocked out in incidents that were not their fault, a view supported by the race officials, who penalised Senna and Perez for the collisions with Jaime and Sébastien respectively”.

But the mood was not without hope or encouragement in the Toro Rosso squad. On the positive side, the two drivers performed strongly throughout the weekend and all the updates introduced on the STR6 seem to have delivered increased performances. The team can now look forward to Monza, their home race in two weeks’ time.