Glock: It was a perfect weekend
Glock's second place is Toyota's best finish in F1
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By Tom Powell. |  |
Saturday, 26, Sep 2009 04:13
By Adam Leveridge
Timo Glock, having secured second place, Toyota's best ever finish in the Singapore grand prix, said it was a pefect weekend for the Cologne-based team.
The German inherited a position early on in the race, after Mark Webber had to relinquish two positions to him and Fernando Alonso for making an illegal overtaking move on lap one.
Glock held third fourth place during his first stint, but climbed up to second place after Nico Rosberg and Sebastien Vettel were handed drive-through penalties.
The Toyota driver said he hoped for a strong finish in Singapore after a good performance from the team at last year's night race.
"It was a really good race for me," said Glock.
"That start was a bit messed up, but then I had a good first stint.
"I knew I couldn't go on the same pace as the first three guys, so I just settled down and just concentrated on what I could do with my car.
"Before I came to Singapore, I knew that last year we had a good result and I knew the driver could make a difference here.
"I just pushed as hard as possible, I went up and down throughout the weekend.
"Friday first practice wasn't okay and the suddenly we just picked up and got everything right.
"And then in qualifying again, we got easily through to Q3.
"In the race it was really, really good.
"I lost a bit of pace, but I knew where the other guys were and once I had changed to the option tyres I improved quite a lot.
"My team didn't tell me where I was and then suddenly they told me that I was safe in second place, which was really surprising and I just brought it home in the end."
Glock admitted that the first lap battle between Webber and Alonso played into his hands and he said it was crucial for him to pass the Renault driver before the first round of stops.
"I saw that Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso were battling quite a lot and I knew that the chance would be there when they made a mistake," said Glock.
"I just took it and I knew from the free practice that Alonso and Renault has struggled a little bit over the distance and we were quite okay.
"I had to get in front of him to make my strategy work, so that worked out really well.
"It was just a perfect weekend and I think a podium has come at the right moment for us."