Marussia's 2013 season continues to get off to a high, thanks to their two new drivers. Max Chilton who claimed 16th place and Force India reject Jules Bianchi claimed a well respected 13th place for the Banbury based team.
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The Frenchman amazed the crowd with his pace in the Marussia, he was over a second quicker than Chilton at one point, on Saturday afternoon's
Qualifying session . Initially Bianchi had a poor start from the grid, going backwards rather than forwards. Which in turn made it more difficult for himself, as he could of been higher placed. But Bianchi soon got into the rhythm, by starting to pass a few cars. Until he caught up with a Caterham, who kept The Frenchman at bay for quite a few laps. Bianchi reported after the race, that if the Marussia hadn't of been in his way, he could of been placed alot high.
Bianchi meanwhile is hoping the trend continues at team Marussia, revealing his is more than satisfied with the progress the team are making. Last week
RaceDepartment reported Marussia and Caterham were in
merging talks over Christmas, at the end of last season. But with Marussia's car getting better and better, who would of thought they were even considering merging.
Bianchi told Crash:
“Obviously I'm delighted to finish 13th today, after 15th in my first race last weekend. After 18 laps or so I was able to get back into position and from then on I was very happy with my progress. It was nice to have held off Maldonado and to maintain the gap for so long. This shows we have the car to fight with them in the future. There are some things to learn from and improve after today and the weekend generally, but we have also made more progress already since Melbourne and we need to keep pushing. My thanks to the team for a lot of hard work and more to come between now and China.”
Marussia are "Pleased" with the progress both of their two new drivers are making. The team have stated that each driver is providing excellent feedback and working well with their Race Engineers to find where they can improve their times.