After pulling a rabbit out of the hat to get both of its cars into Q2 on Saturday, Marussia’s promise slowly faded away during the British Grand Prix on Sunday as Jules Bianchi came home as the lead car in 14th place.
Bianchi had started in 12th, and made a good getaway from the grid to hold position after the first lap. When the race was red flagged, Max Chilton made the mistake of pitting for repairs, earning himself a drive through penalty in the process.
Bianchi worked hard to try and keep some of the drivers behind, but gradually fell further back before eventually finishing in 14th.
“From 10th place at the restart I had a very enjoyable opening stint,” the Frenchman said. “I knew I wouldn’t be able to hold off the faster cars behind me but it was a good test of our pace as to how long I could keep them behind for and this was a fun part of the race for me.
“After that I just had to push as hard as I could to stay with the pack in case any opportunity arose. What we did see today is that all we need is just a few more tenths a lap to allow us to keep pace with the Lotus and Sauber cars, so we have to focus now on finding that extra time.”
Chilton finished as the last running driver on track down in 16th place, and lamented the first lap incident he was caught up in that forced him to pit under the red flag.
“After yesterday’s qualifying performance we were hopeful that we could have a good race today and we certainly didn’t anticipate the course of events that we did encounter,” he said. “That was a scary moment when I was hit by the flying tire. I was very lucky in one respect but massively unlucky given the damage to my car.
“I was happy to overtake Kobayashi so that I could then work away at closing the gap to him to unlap myself. I’m pleased we got both cars to the finish at our home race. We were hoping for more but with the circumstances we had it’s a good result.”
