Tost hopes eighth boosts Bourdais

Date published : 24 May 2009 - 17:23:54

Toro Rosso boss Franz Tost hopes that eighth place in Monaco will be a turning point for his struggling driver Sebastien Bourdais. The Frenchman has been out-paced by his rookie team-mate Sebastien Buemi for much of the season so far, but drove an impressive race to come from 14th on the grid to eighth today. "I am really happy for Bourdais, who drove a fantastically good race, picking up a point that is very important for him and the team," said Tost. "This result is good for his self-confidence for the next few races." Bourdais was satisfied with his point, but pointed out that ultimately he was looking for far more than eighth places. It feels good to score points here, at what can be considered my home grand prix as there is no French race," he said. "I felt that, again, I hadn t done a good job in qualifying, so, I can be happy to finish P8, given the small number of incidents today. "It s another point which is important: it s not enough, but it s better than nothing. "It was a fun race, with the satisfaction of scoring a point starting 14th. "If I can improve in qualifying in the coming races, then maybe we can hope for more, starting in Istanbul. He was pleased that he had managed to pull off a one-stop strategy given tyre troubles earlier in the weekend. "The car performed consistently, especially on the prime tyre although the balance wasn t perfect," said Bourdais. "Then, on the options I tried to look after them as I d had trouble with them on Thursday. "I managed the situation, as the car was moving more and I had some degradation."