- Singapore GP - Race
Penalties inspired late charge - Vergne
Jean-Eric Vergne admits the two time penalties handed to him in the Singapore Grand Prix were the driving force behind the aggression which triggered his thrilling charge to sixth.
Vergne received an early penalty for exceeding track limits when passing Kimi Raikkonen when the Finn emerged from the pits, before falling foul of the same rule through Turn 7 against Pastor Maldonado. He served the first five-second penalty at a pit stop, and then had the second - which he disagreed with - after the race.
With nine laps to go Vergne, whose future in F1 is still in doubt after losing his 2015 Toro Rosso seat, started a charge through the field with a series of aggressive moves. Vergne says his penalties and the memory of a mistake in qualifying spurred him on.
"It was an really good race, I'm extremely happy," Vergne said. "I had two penalties today; the first one was my mistake, in the second Maldonado didn't give me any room. Anyway, that just gave me even more hunger to take the good points at the end.
"I was not good yesterday in qualifying, I made a mistake and told the team I was going to make it up to them and that's what I've done. I think I've shown my potential and I think I did everything I could today."
The pick of the bunch for Vergne was a superb lunge down the inside of Raikkonen, and when asked about the move the Frenchman said: "I just went for it! I had passed Hulkenberg and that gave me the confidence to just go get it."
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