Caterham hunt Toro Rosso

Caterham’s claim they had a chance to fight with Toro Rosso proved prophetic as all four cars were involved in race incidents.

Battling over 17th position, Heikki Kovalainen’s Caterham and the Toro Rosso of Jean-Eric Vergne collided, with both cars sustaining damage and punctures. While Kovalainen was able to rejoin, Vergne’s damage caused him to retire. “I felt I was ahead and as I started to turn into the corner, we collided and his front wing clipped my rear wheel. There was too much damage to the floor and it was impossible to change the damaged rear wheel so there was no way for me to continue,” said Vernge. “I think it was just a racing incident.”

Kovalainen has a somewhat different opinion: My pace was good but then Vergne made what looks like a rookie mistake, hit me and I had to come in for a new nose. From that point I was just trying to get to the end of the race.”

The Stewards did not agree with Vergne’s interpretation, fining the Frenchman €25,000 post-race and dropping him ten places on the grid at the British Grand Prix.

Vitaly Petrov was fairing better: having qualified 20th the Russian benefitted from the safety car period and was running as high as tenth– though Petrov denies there was a chance of scoring the team’s first points. "Even though we were running tenth at one point I’m not sure a point was quite within reach today, but it’s really encouraging to see how we’ve progressed here and we know we have more to come in Silverstone so we have something good to fight for and that’s great for the whole team.”

Tussling over 11th on lap 46, Petrov and Daniel Ricciardo collided at the end of the DRS zone as the Australian tried to take the place. The Caterham needed to pit for a new nose, while the Toro Rosso lost several places. “I went to get around him and he defended by going a bit wide. So I tried to switch back and I feel I gave him some racing room, but we still made contact because perhaps his move was a bit too aggressive,” said Ricciardo. “That cost me a chance to get into the points.”

Caterham technical director Mark Smith argued a similar point from the opposite side: “Without the contact with Vergne and Ricciardo we may have been able to finish a couple of places higher, but we have to be pleased with how we reacted to the incidents on track, and the fact that we have clearly made some gains here. We have more upgrades to come for Silverstone and if we keep up this level of momentum we have a very exciting second half of the season ahead of us."