Zoom Bourdais and Piquet clashed early on

The Toro Rosso team were flat out of luck today in the 66-lap Spanish Grand Prix with both Sebastien Bourdais and Sebastian Vettel unable to complete the race.

Vettel was the first casualty as he struck the stranded Adrian Sutil who in turn had just hit David Coulthard and spun on lap one. Bourdais meanwhile found Nelson Piquet diving down the inside a few laps later and the two made contact.

Sebastien Bourdais
“I would not like to say exactly what happened until I see the replay. All I know is that I checked my mirrors and Nelson did not seem to be in a position to attack, even though he was close to me, but not close enough. I braked for Turn 10 quite late, started to turn into the corner and all of a sudden, he was there alongside me as I turned. That was the end of the story. It’s a shame as we had done a pretty good job this weekend up to that point.”

Sebastian Vettel
“This is very disappointing, especially as there was nothing I could do about it. The collision happened at Turn 4, when Adrian (Sutil) was far too optimistic in attempting an overtaking manoeuvre. He clipped an other car and that spun him round right in front of me. I tried to get through on the inside, but there was no way for me to go. I might have managed it, but I had a Super Aguri also trying to get past it. We’ll just have to try again in Istanbul. Hopefully we can get the new car soon and move out of the back of the pack, where I have had so many problems at the start of races.”

Franz Tost
“Our races are getting shorter and shorter at the moment! Vettel stopped at Turn 4 on Lap 1, while Bourdais managed six more laps. Vettel could do nothing about it as Sutil spun right in front of him and Bourdais didn’t see Piquet and they collided.”

E.A. © CAPSIS International