Virgin now ready to make the grade and win battle of the rookies

The Brazilian rookie, who is embracing the challenge of launching his Formula 1 career with the Yorkshire novices, retired after only 10 laps of the British Grand Prix because of an unrelated hydraulics problem.

However, team-mate Timo Glock finished 18th after a battle with Lotus drivers Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli, which lasted the entire 52 laps.

Lotus and Hispania Racing still have the edge over Virgin in the new trio's bid to finish 10th in the constructors' championship and unlock the 17m in prize money that would set them up for a more sustained challenge in 2011, but di Grassi believes they have closed the gap.

Virgin arrived at Silverstone with new front and rear wings, a new floor and a new diffuser and di Grassi said: "I saw the numbers on the computer and I saw the new parts on the car and I was a little concerned how the numbers would correlate on the track. But they did. What we saw on the computer, we saw on the track.

"That gives me a confidence boost because that was a massive step forward for us.

"It was disappointing for me not to finish at Silverstone, but overall the performance of the team and the upgrade suggests we are going forward.

"We had fallen a little behind Lotus but now we are catching them and it's still within our reach to be the best of the new teams."

Virgin may not even require a top-10 grand prix finish to move into 10th place in the constructors' championship, with the best finish of the new teams being Kovalainen's 13th-place in Australia.

"We would need special circumstances in a race to get us into the top 10," accepted di Grassi, who left Silverstone to work on the simulator at the team's Oxfordshire plant before returning to Dinnington on Thursday to help with the set-up of the car ahead of the German Grand Prix later this month.

"At the minute, the target is 12th and if we can get in front of Lotus and those special circumstances occur, then we will be first in line to benefit.

"The gap between the new and established teams is now only two seconds or so, where it used to be four. That final two seconds will be the hardest to make up but the amount of work the team has put in to sort out the reliability and get us into this position is massive, and when you get results out of it, it motivates people and I see the team keeping their motivation high."

Guy Smith's chances of winning the American Le Mans Series alongside co-driver Chris Dyson suffered a blow on Sunday when he was forced to retire in the closing stages at the Miller Motorsports Park in Utah.

The 35-year-old from Beverley – third in the standings beforehand – qualified in third place but the engine of his Lola packed in with him running fourth.