Sunday: Charles Pic limited the damage for Caterham
With a penalty imposed even before the start, Charles Pic's race promised to be complicated. Nevertheless, he managed to outpace Max Chilton and finish 18th. Giedo van der Garde only completed one turn as he collided with Jules Bianchi's Marussia.
Charles Pic – 18th
« I got off to a good start, but we had already decided to serve my penalty at the end of the first lap to get it out of the way. So I tried to come back from there. My goal at that moment was to overtake Chilton, and I ended up almost 20 seconds ahead of him. That’s pretty much all we could hope for today. I was on a set of hard tires for the first stint, and they held up well. They worked well, and I was given the green light to push quite early. So I tried to close the gap as much as I could. We pitted for the first time on lap 17 and did the second stint on new medium tires. My pace was good with them until the second stop on lap 35. The last stint was on a new set of hard tires, and I came out about 11 seconds behind the Marussia. So I pushed as much as I could and reduced the gap to 8 seconds with 11 laps to go. I was gaining about a second per lap and overtook him with 5 laps to go, finishing 18th. I have to say I’m quite happy with that given the time lost in the first lap, but I kept pushing. I think it’s a fair result today for all the team’s hard work. It shows we never stop fighting. »
Giedo van der Garde – retirement
My start was good but arriving into the first corner, I got stuck between the two Marussias and couldn’t go anywhere. I lost my front wing in my contact with Bianchi and the car went straight into the wall. It was quite a big impact but I’m fine. Obviously, it’s disappointing but it’s a racing incident. These kinds of things happen from time to time. Now we head to India to fight for a better weekend there and for the rest of the season.
