Jaime Alguersuari finished in the points for the first time since the Spanish Grand Prix – but said he’s “not sure” how he did it.
| Sebastien Buemi | Jaime Alguersuari | |
| Qualifying position | 18 | 17 |
| Qualifying time comparison (Q1) | 1’41.824 (+0.117) | 1’41.707 |
| Race position | 15 | 9 |
| Laps | 55/55 | 55/55 |
| Pit stops | 1 | 1 |
Open lap times interactive chart in new window
Sebastien Buemi
Was on course to reach Q2 – by knocking out his team mate – when he touched the wall during his final lap in Q1:
I lost quite a bit of time at Turn 19, as I just brushed the wall on the exit to it, which cost me three tenths and a place in Q2, so I cannot be happy with the way the session went. It was ironic that it was my team-mate who knocked me out of Q2.
Sebastien Buemi
He avoided the Schumacher/Liuzzi collision and managed to pick up a couple of places. While the team brought Alguersuari in Buemi was left out, which he felt was not the best strategy:
The team decided to bring Jaime in for a tyre change and keep me out during the Safety Car period. I think my team-mate?óÔé¼Ôäós strategy proved to be the better one as there was no tyre degradation, as he was able to pit and catch up behind the Safety Car
So I?óÔé¼Ôäóm a bit disappointed, because I feel that if I had been on a different strategy I could easily have finished in the points.
Sebastien Buemi
Compare Sebastien Buemi’s form against his team mate in 2010
Jaime Alguersuari
Pitted for medium tyres on lap one during the safety car period and, like several other drivers, was able to keep them intact until the end of the race with little difficulty.
Kept Mark Webber behind for two laps before the Red Bull driver passed him on lap 14.
But he kept Felipe Massa behind until the end of the race to finish ninth. It helped his cause that the Toro Rossos were the quickest car in a straight line, topping the speed traps in qualifiyng.
Alguersuari said:
I am very happy with this result, my third points finish of the season. To be honest, I am not quite sure how I ended up ninth, having started seventeenth!
I was very lucky not to be involved in the Schumacher accident on the opening lap and after that, it was a good strategic choice to change tyres immediately the Safety Car came out. After that, the tyres worked very well for the whole race with no degradation at all on the rears.
I could feel the track condition improving all the time and that meant I was able to have an edge over Massa in sector three and maintain the distance in the first two sectors, even though he was probably fractionally faster than me.
I am very happy with the team because they did a good job on the strategy so for everyone, this ninth place is well deserved and a nice way to end the season.
Jaime Alguersuari
Compare Jaime Alguersuari’s form against his team mate in 2010
2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
- 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix: the complete F1 Fanatic race weekend review
- Drivers’ and teams’ end-of-season photographs
- Alonso’s role in Ferrari strategy revealed in pit messages
- Hamilton: McLaren learned a lot in 2010
- Button vows to address qualifying weakness
- Vettel ends season on a high to snatch title
- Ferrari hit back at criticism of race strategy
- McLaren rediscover their form at final race
- New engines help Renault to best result of 2010
- Schumacher not blaming Rosberg for crash
glue (@glue)
15th November 2010, 16:08
Alguersuari is shaping up to be quite a defender
Fixy (@)
15th November 2010, 18:35
And is beating Buemi. All the noise of Buemi to Red Bull should stop now.
US_Peter (@us_peter)
16th November 2010, 18:12
Yeah Jaime would be a better prospect even at this point. Along with Liuzzi and Force India, Buemi and Torro Rosso have been the other biggest disappointment of the year for me.
Enigma (@enigma)
15th November 2010, 16:42
Why is it ironic that it was because of Alguersuari that he didn’t make Q2?
SonyJunkie
15th November 2010, 16:54
Is it just me, or does anyone else think that Jaime moving over for Mark is just as outrageous as Filepe moving over for Fernando, if not more so?!!!
Here we have a completely different team giving up track position just because they are owned by the same guy!
Where does this end? Ferrari buying HRT and using them to hold up rival teams while letting Ferrari drivers through!!
Daffyd
15th November 2010, 17:04
Not sure if you’re being sarcastic here, but…
Moving over for someone for 15th position on the last race – the championship deciding race – is a bit different from moving over for someone for 1st place when there are still eight races left to play for.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
15th November 2010, 17:07
i think Mark got the tow and moved to the inside and Jaime didn’t want to risk a collision with a champ contender.
By the looks of it, Massa didn’t have such a big chance, a bit like Alonso on Petrov…
tho, the cameras didn’t show him that much!
Luis
17th November 2010, 16:10
He totally let Mark pass, on a extra-team order. It was clear to me.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
15th November 2010, 17:08
Buemi’s 2nd season was very dissapointing! he was struggling to keep Algersuari at the beginning of the season and then again at these last 4 or 5 races…
Marco
15th November 2010, 17:39
Great race by Jaime… He is getting better and better every race, exactly as I predicted months before… It was his sixth race from last seven, where he was in a position for fight for points… Problems with water leak (Singapore) and pneumaric gun (Spain, Korea) prevented him to score much more points then Buemi… Well done Jaime and a great finish of the season! I am expecting even more progress after the winter break…:)
Feli
15th November 2010, 20:34
Really brilliant progression during his first complete season, ussually outperforming his much more experienced team mate being only 20 years old with very few testing.
Well done Jaime! Good luck next year!
Marco
16th November 2010, 9:29
Alguersuari is still underrated by almost everyone, but I am laughing at it… He was even not included in “the best driver of the race consideration” of Mr. Collantine, but It really didn t surprise me that much recently… STR was not a car to finish in top 10 starting from 17th position… Alguersuari drove like champ yesterday looking at his tyres, driving consistently good lap times and keeping Massa behind… But he never gets respect from the public whatever he do… Time will tell, who was right in here…
dj
15th November 2010, 22:24
Love to see Jaime , move into Webber seat in 2012.