By Andrew Cutler
March 24 2013

Scuderia Toro Rosso had to take the bad with the good at Sepang on Sunday. Both drivers showed well amongst the mid-field pack, but early damage to Daniel's car & an unsafe pit box release of JEV's would curtail the squad's hopes of gaining the best possible results out of the race.

Daniel Riccardo would be caught out by the wet track conditions at the start, taking an off-track excursion on the first lap that tore up the undertray on his STR8. While he would soldier on for most of the event, the exaust system would finally give out on him, forcing his early exit from the GP in the closing laps.

Jean-Eric had a less eventful start to the day, but a mid-race pit stop would almost go disastrously wrong as he was released strait into the side of Charles Pic's incomming Caterham. Fortunately, both men would be able to continue on. By race's end, Vergne would find himself in 10th place, earning his first WDC championship point for the season.

After the race the FIA decided to fine STR $10,000 for the incident; a judgement which the team has accepted without complaint.

Here are the team's post-race comments:

Jean-Eric Vergne, 10th:

"It’s good to finish in the points, but it’ a shame that a mistake in the pits cost us so much, as I could have done something better. So, overall I feel rather frustrated. But I’ll take the point gladly. After these first two races, we now have a short break before we go racing again and we must use that time to take a close look at how we performed and where we can do better, because there is certainly a lot of room for improvement, as both these two races have been missed opportunities. On the positive side, again today, once we got over our problems I had a good race pace and managed to make up a lot of places."

Daniel Riccardo, DNF:

"I compromised my race even before the start when the conditions were very slippery, aquaplaning off at Turn 3. I managed to keep going, but I went across the gravel quite fast and damaged the floor. That probably played a part in my problem at the end. I got a reasonable start and made up a few places and was pretty pleased with the first couple of laps. But I did not have the pace to keep the Lotuses behind me and stay in the top ten, even though the switch to dry tyres was well timed. Like I said, I think the damage on that opening lap affected my overall performance all race long."

Franz Tost, Team Principal:

"An eventful race with the field starting on Intermediates. We timed our switch to slicks well on both cars and Daniel made up a few positions straight away. The midfield battle was very fierce and we had one car at the front, Daniel, and one at the back of this group, Jev. Unfortunately, we had a poor release from Jev’s pit stop and he collided with a Caterham which cost us a lot of time, as we had to pull him back for a new nose. The Stewards have fined us for a dangerous release from a pit stop and we agree with their decision. After that, Jev did a good job to fight back and get into the points ahead of that midfield group, which is quite an achievement on a dry track. The fact our race pace was satisfactory was the most positive point of the race. In Daniel’s case, he went off on the lap to the grid and raced with a damaged floor, so taking that into account and how it affected his car, his performance in those circumstances was also positive. Unfortunately, we had an exhaust issue on his car in the closing laps and decided it was best to retire him in the pits. In general, our race performance was good, but we are too slow in Qualifying. We have to find a way of improving on Saturday afternoons, so that we give ourselves a better start on Sundays.