First Points For Marussia

Jules Bianchi took Marussia to their first Formula One points at the Monaco Grand Prix today when he finished eighth.

Although the Frenchman was later demoted to ninth after a five-second time penalty moved him behind Lotus’ Romain Grosjean, he still secured two points for the team – their first in their four seasons.

“I am just incredibly happy,” Bianchi said. “But first of all, I have to pay credit to everyone at the Marussia F1 Team for making this possible. I am thrilled that I have helped them to achieve their long-held target of our first points. To achieve them together makes me very proud. 

“It was not an easy race; there were some enjoyable highs along the way, but also a couple of concerning moments too. What matters in the end is that we got there and we can savour the highlights for a long time to come. “

“Naturally we are overjoyed at today’s result,” Marussia Team Principal John Booth said after the race. “It is a fantastic reward for all the hard work and determination, not just this year, but over the past four and a bit seasons. 

“We are only a young team, but we have every reason to believe in ourselves and a positive future. Clearly, in today’s race, we benefited from some attrition but, throughout, we were running at a pace that allowed us to stay in position with the cars around us. It is clear that we are now able to race with the back of the midfield pack.”

Virgin (now Marussia) entered the sport in 2010 alongside Lotus (now Caterham) and Hispania (who have since folded), and are the first of the three teams to score a point. Last year, Marussia took tenth in the Constructors’ Championship when Bianchi finished 13th in Malaysia, with Caterham finishing 11th in the Championship.

Caterham narrowly missed out on also scoring their first points when Marcus Ericsson finished eleventh. They finished higher than Marussia in 2012 when Charles Pic, then driving for Marussia but with a contract signed with Caterham for the following year, lost 12th to Heikki Kovalainen in the final race of the season.

Image courtesy of Marussia F1 Team.