Reliability problems to fore again for off-the-pace Virgin

Just when they appeared to be getting on top of their mechanical faults to give them the chance to concentrate on increasing their pace, a gearbox problem that was persistant last year reared its ugly head.

German driver Timo Glock didn’t even start the race because of a fault with fifth gear on the warm-up lap, and after working on the issue for 40 minutes the Virgin pit crew had to stand down to concentrate on Jerome D’Ambrosio.

The Belgian finished 20th, crossing the line for the third time in four races, but the Dinnington team’s principal John Booth said: “We’re disappointed for Timo after his efforts and we’ll look into the data now to understand why this happened.

“Having experienced many gearbox issues last year and then to make such made enormous strides with the quality of the preparation this year, it is highly unusual that we should experience this problem.”

Glock said: “It was very frustrating to experience a problem with fifth gear just as I was making my way to the grid.

“I have to say the team did an amazing job to try to get me back on track but in the end it just wasn’t possible.

“Overall I think we have made some progress this weekend but there is still plenty of hard work ahead of us if we are to keep pushing forward.

“Everyone is very committed to seeing that happen though, so we stay focused and look ahead to Spain when I hope we will have made enough progress to reintroduce the new floor and exhaust which should help us a little more.”

On D’Ambrosio’s finish, that was aided by a mid-race switch to a two-stop strategy in a bid to preserve the prime Pirelli tryes, Booth said: “We predicted Jerome would have a real ‘racer’s race’ and that is exactly what we saw.

“He grabbed the opportunity with both hands, using the DRS effectively to steal a march on Narain Karthikeyan the minute the activation period came into play, then after a three- or four-lap battle with Vitantonio Liuzzi using the DRS, Jérôme’s tenacity paid off and he was able to ease away.”

Elsewhere, Britain’s Jenson Button was left bemoaning the wrong strategy because at one point he was told over the radio he was in good shape. The 31-year-old finished where he started in sixth place and has now fallen 47 points behind Vettel.

“Overall the car felt pretty good and I did in it, but we went the wrong way with strategy. To finish sixth is not what I expected,” he said.