Virgin frustrated but still smiling

Denied by some bad luck and an error in the pits, drivers Timo Glock and Lucas di Grassi were forced to settle for a finishing place well down the grid, and behind rivals Lotus.

Virgin Racing had high hopes for a strong finish, as Glock had qualified fastest of the new teams, but it was not to be on a frustrating afternoon.

However, in a race were all six of the new cars for 2010 finished safely – the first time that has ever happened – there were still some plus-points for the Dinnington-based team to take.

They now head into their summer break full of confidence that when the team return for the Belgian GP at Spa next month, they will be able to continue their incredible improvement.

Technical director Nick Wirth said: "The results don't lie and the combination of getting boxed in at the start, plus a pitstop problem effectively put us behind and once there, the nature of this track plus the blue flags meant that any possibility of finishing higher was over after the safety car.

"Still, we leave here with a lot of positive feelings – we are clearly performing at a good level now and the fact that we ended qualifying and the race with clearly the fastest laps of the new teams and a solid and reliable two-car finish gives us a good platform for the next phase of the season, where we must continue this trend of improving performance"

Driver Glock enjoyed a great start, but made a wrong choice at the first corner and that mistake cost him the chance of making ground on the cars ahead.

"I took the wrong line into the first corner, going round the outside when the inside would have worked out better and I lost several places," he said. "When the Safety Car came out I had to queue behind Lucas in the pits because he was first in.

"After the Safety Car I was behind Heikki Kovalainen and then Jarno Trulli pitted later and came out straight in front of me and we had a bit of a battle into turn one.

"Then I just tried to follow Lotus but with all the blue flags I couldn't help but drop back and ended up finishing 16th. However, we finished the race with both cars and had an otherwise strong weekend and I think everyone is ready to enjoy the summer break now.

"I'm sure we can look forward to some good results in the rest of the season."

Team-mate Di Grassi overcame his early problems by clocking the fastest lap of the new teams.

"When the Safety Car came out we decided to pit. It was the perfect strategy move as it put me ahead of the new team cars, but unfortunately there was a problem with one of the wheels and I had to come in again on the next lap for another stop.

"This put me a lap down and my race was effectively over, so all I could do was push the car to the limit and in doing so I was able to secure the fastest lap of the new teams.

"This just underlines how far our car has progressed but I am disappointed that I wasn't able to get more from the race."