By Andrew Cutler
October 7 2007

POINTS!!! Lots of them, considering the year that Scuderia Toro Rosso has had thusfar. Today's Chinese GP saw the squad from Faenza finally break through all of the difficulties and just plain hard luck that had dogged them all season long. Now they sit 7th in the constructor's ranking.

A combination of good pit strategy, the misfortune of others & pure speed helped Tonio & Sebastian put in a banner day. Liuzzi looked the be the stronger of the two in the early going, but Vettel's pit strategy worked slightly better and it was the young German who ended up with the better result, 4th to Tonio's sixth.

Still, nobody from the team is complaining!

Here are their post-race comments:

Sebastian Vettel:

"P4! A Fantastic race. In the beginning it was quite difficult, starting in the mid field. For a couple of metres the visibility was okay and then you got all the spray. After the start, I used my momentum to go round the outside of several cars. Even though it was really slippery I took the risk. I kept pushing as hard as I could. After I passed Kovalainen I had a clear track ahead of me and was able to push harder. Just as I changed to dry tyres the rain came, but fortunately it went away quickly. I fought with Jenson, but when we realized he was on a two stopper, I didn't worry. The last 20 laps were unbelievable and even though I had the situation under control and slowed the pace, it was tough. A fantastic day for the whole team, especially with Tonio in P6.

"Yesterday I wasn't happy with my grid penalty but today I got my revenge on the track. Finish fourth is fantastic. When I left the factory in Italy, the guys said 'Sebastian, you must bring back some points' and I said I'd try. In Fuji we got close and today came this great result. Now I will celebrate with the team who did a great job in the pit stops and with the strategy."

Vitantonio Liuzzi: 

"This was a great race from start to finish with everything going perfectly. I think Sebastian's one- stop strategy was better but that does not matter now. It is fantastic for the team that we both scored points. I made no mistakes and had some great fights with Williams, Renault and BMW. I don't think we could have done more than this.

"I am really happy for the team who really deserve these points. Many times this year, we have shown that we were capable of scoring points, but somehow we never got them. Now everyone can be happy and it shows that the team is growing and that all the guys are doing a great job. Now we can go to Brazil in a really positive frame of mind after showing what we can do, both here and in Fuji last week. We deserve this result."

Gerhard Berger, STR co-owner:

"A very good result thanks to a fantastic effort from the team and both drivers. We have been working very, very hard and sometimes this year we have been a bit unlucky. Today it all came togeather. This team works so hard. it is competetive and fights hard with limited resources, but still doing an outstanding job. The immediate future? To go to Sao Paulo and try and get more points."