By Andrew Cutler
September 30 2007

For a time there, it looked like STR might hit the podium jackpot as rain threw the 'normal' F1 running order out of kilter. In the end, however, a moment of attention placed on the wrong car by Sebastian Vettel proved to be costly. Meanwhile, Vitantonio Liuzzi did pick up a nice 'consolation' prize!

After starting eighth, Vettel would run in third for a good portion of the race, and would even manage to lead a few laps. Back again in third when Fernando Alonso crashed and the Saftey Car came out, Sebastian claims that he was momentarily watching the first-place car of Lewis Hamilton & didn't see that the gap between his car the second-place car of Mark Webber had closed up until he was already hitting it. Both drivers would soon retire as a result of the contact damage.

Webber was understandably upset with the German rookie. "It's what you get when you put kids with not enough experience in one of these cars. They do a good job for a while and then they go and f**k it all up,"

For his part, Vitantonio Liuzzi had a quite but impressively productive race. Opting to switch to the team's spare car, which was set up for the wet conditions, he would start in last place. Tonio would make good use of the car and the conditions as he steadily picked off one competitor after another. This, in addition to other drivers falling out due to various issues, put him in ninth spot in the closing laps. When Nick Heidfeld was forced to retire his BMW on the penultimate lap, Liuzzi was moved up into eighth and picked up STR's first Championship points of the '07 season.

Here are the team's post-race comments:

Vitantonio Liuzzi:

“It was a great race with 67 laps of pure tension because we were aquaplaning all race long. I drove well, especially given that I had qualified badly, after choosing a set-up with little downforce. Therefore, given the conditions this afternoon, I chose to start from the pit lane in the T car that was set up for the wet. In the end, I managed to score a point which is really a boost for the whole team. Conditions were definitely critical for everyone, but we are drivers and it is our job to race and in any case, this is a very safe track.”

Sebastian Vettel:

“I made a good start and the race was going well. Then, with the final safety car, I was behind Lewis and Mark and exiting Turn 13, I looked to the right and saw Lewis going really slowly, I don't know why, but I thought he had a problem. Probably he was heating his brakes. Then, by the time I looked forward again, I was already in the back of Mark's car and I think he had also reacted to Lewis. I apologise now to Mark because I ruined both our races.”