Liuzzi Fan Base special: Tonio’s fantastic Chinese GP!
After a few retirements this season, everything finally came together for Tonio during the last Chinese Grand Prix, in Shanghai. This is a Liuzzi Fan Base special about his best Grand Prix weekend ever!
Qualifying
During a fantastic qualifying session on Saturday, ‘The Italian Stallion’ secured the 11th spot on the grid; his best qualifying performance of 2007! Everyone was very happy with this result, and his team even spoke about ‘special Chinese drinks bottles for their drivers’ for this race!
After the qualifying session Tonio commented: “Overall a good qualifying and I think the whole team can be proud of this result achieved in dry conditions. Yesterday went well and this morning, we worked hard on getting the best set-up possible, always thinking that we might have a wet race tomorrow. In Q1, I had a bit of traffic so I could not get the best out of the car, but we still made it safely to Q2. Maybe I could have done a little bit better if I had made my run later as I had some understeer, but to be eleventh, so close to Q3 means we have done a good job.”
Q1: best lap 1:37.047, pos. 9th
Q2: best lap 1.36.862, pos. 11th
Race
Due to some light rain, everyone including Tonio started this race on intermediate or wet tyres. As soon as the red lights went out, Tonio made some great moves and he was able to overtake some cars in front of him, including Button, Kubica, Webber and Ralf Schumacher. Af few laps later he even moved up to 6th position, after a great passing manoeuvre on Nick Heidfeld.
On lap 20, Tonio came into the pits for some new tyres and fuel. Although a dry line was clearly visible on the track, he chose intermediate tyres again for his second stint. Because of his pit stop Tonio felt back to the 11th position in the race, just in front of the battling Rosberg and Schumacher.
Five laps later, Tonio was the next target of Ralf Schumacher. He tried to overtake Tonio, but he touched his left front tyre. Fortunately there was no major damage for Tonio. Ralf came in for a pit stop, just like Coulthard, Webber and Kubica.
While the rain came back, Tonio pushed very hard to gain some places…and he succeeded! He moved up to 4th, his best Formula 1 race position ever! On lap 32, Tonio made his second pit stop and changed to dry medium Bridgestone tyres. Again he lost some places because of his pit stop; he didn’t felt back to 11th, but to the 8th position in the race. At that time Tonio, his team and his fans were crossing their fingers…
the 8th spot meant points!
Although 8th was already a good performance from Tonio, it only went better! Several people including Heidfeld had to come in for normal dry tyres and Robert Kubica had to retire due to a hydraulic problem. Besides that, rookie-of-the-year Lewis Hamilton made a costly mistake and ended his race in the gravel. On lap 37 Tonio had a good battle with Fisichella and Wurz, and two laps later he lost his 6th position to Fisichella. Fortunately for Tonio, Fisichella had to come in and he was back on the 6th spot. Towards the end of the race Tonio had an intense battle with Nick Heidfeld, the man who’s 5th in the championship standings. Our Italian Stallion was holding off Heidfeld in a magnificent way and crossed the finish line as 6th, his best Formula 1 race result ever!
After the first celebrations with his team, a very happy Tonio said:
“This was a great race from start to finish with everything going perfectly. I think Sebastian’s one-stop strategy was better but that does not matter now. It is fantastic for the team that we both scored points. I made no mistakes and had some great fights with Williams, Renault and BMW. I don’t think we could have done more than this. I am really happy for the team who really deserve these points. Many times this year, we have shown that we were capable of scoring points, but somehow we never got them. Now everyone can be happy and it shows that the team is growing and that all the guys are doing a great job. Now we can go to Brazil in a really positive frame of mind after showing what we can do, both here and in Fuji last week. We deserve this result!”
Finish position: 6th
Fastest lap: 1:39.654 (lap 53)
Pit stops: lap 20 & lap 32
Tyre choice: Intermediate / Intermediate / Medium
Chassis: STR2-03
Post race quotes from others
“A very good result thanks to a fantastic effort from the team and both drivers. We have been working very very hard and sometimes this year we have been a bit unlucky. Today it all came together. This team works so hard. It is competitive and fights hard with limited resources, but still doing an outstanding job. The immediate future? To go to São Paulo and try and get more points.”
Gerhard Berger
“Congratulations to Toro Rosso today on their fourth and six place.”
Christian Horner
“I also wish to congratulate our friends at Toro Rosso, who picked up some important points: it is great to see four Ferrari engines in the top eight.”
Jean Todt
“Toro Rosso had a good strategy and changed on the right time, to the right tyres. Of course the team took a risk when they changed to dry tyres, but after that both drivers did an outstanding job.”
Peter Sauber
“I must say congratulations to the Toro Rosso drivers who I think both did a good job.”
Patrick Head
“On lap four I made a mistake under braking before the hairpin and Vitantonio Liuzzi passed me. Later in the race we met again, but I couldn’t overtake him. I was very close in the corners but couldn’t catch him on the straights.”
Nick Heidfeld
Lap chart
Pictures
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