Today's 69th Monaco Grand Prix promised spectacle and certainly delivered it by the boat-load, including a restart with only six laps of the race remaining.

The streets of Monte Carlo basked in ambient temperatures peaking at 23°C, with the track high reaching a blistering 44°C. Marussia Virgin Racing drivers Timo Glock and Jerome D'Ambrosio both got off to a good start, managing to keep their noses clean during the opening lap and maintaining their positions.

Timo was demonstrating good pace after starting on the Super Soft Pirelli P-Zero tyres and was able to keep in touch with the cars ahead. On lap 22 he made his first and, as it turned out, only pit-stop, as just 12 laps later he was forced to retire due to right rear push-rod failure, pulling up in the Swimming Pool section of the track.

Meanwhile, Jerome was able to run consistently and look after his Prime tyres. With the Safety Car deployed as a result of Massa's incident in the tunnel, he pitted for Super Soft tyres and was back out on track in 16th position, defending well from the other cars. He was able to make the Option tyres work for around 30 laps until it became apparent that he would need another stop. With just six laps to go, red flags were deployed after a big crash involving Petrov and Alguersuari and the race was suspended temporarily to clear the cars and resulting debris. The cars returned to the grid and the race was restarted 20 minutes later behind the safety car. Jerome completed the remaining laps without incident and crossed the line in 15th position.

Timo Glock: "I was having a good race until the problem with the rear suspension. Even though the cars in front were slightly quicker, we were keeping up with them and we could have a bit of a fight. But unfortunately the right rear push-rod was damaged and collapsed in the chicane in the harbour - lucky it happened at a slow part of the track. So it's a bit disappointing after what has been a good weekend for us. We had a good qualifying yesterday and today we had a good possibility to finish the race. Unfortunately this was not the case. I want to thank the team for a good weekend after two very busy weeks for all of us."

Jerome D'Ambrosio: "It was a pretty good race for me, which was all about keeping the tyres alive. After starting on the Soft Prime tyre, the car wasn't as quick, but we decided during the race that we could make a one-stop work. Then the Safety Car came out a few laps earlier than we would have chosen to stop and so we had to switch to the Super Softs at that point. It went okay for 30 laps but then when Heidfeld passed I got some pick-up from the marbles and I couldn't clean the tyres again. I just lost grip and the Lotuses were able to pass me, and that was it. Still, a great first Monaco Grand Prix and I look forward to many more. It's a real privilege to race a Formula One car here."

John Booth, Team Principal: "We predicted yesterday that the race would be incident-filled and that we would need to be ready to take advantage of any opportunity that came our way, and this is exactly what both drivers did today. It was a difficult decision to start both cars on a split strategy, but one that ultimately paid off at different stages in the race. We had information from Timo's first stint on the Option tyre that made us feel confident that, when the safety car came out, we could switch Jerome to a one-stop and take the track position that we were getting from the strategy. Jerome had done a great job of defending against Lotus for around 15 laps but unfortunately, due to running wide for a blue flag, he picked up some marbles and was unable to stay in front. Timo drove a strong first stint to keep in touch with the guys in front. Throughout the weekend he has demonstrated great skill and faultless performances but unfortunately we believe his right rear push-rod failed in the race, so we will go away and analyse what led to that. All in all it has been a challenging but rewarding couple of weeks of back to back racing and we will return to our base to prepare for the trip across to Canada in two weeks' time."

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