Yearly Archives: 2013

In the fourth and final part of the ‘Getting to know Aussie Grit’ series, Mark creates his ultimate sportsman by piecing together characteristics from fellow athletes he admires.

“Even after my first pitstop I thought I was on two-stop strategy,” says Mark. “That was the plan before the race and the team then called me up to say I should switch to a three-stopper.”

“We were on the back foot a bit after Romain’s great start.” said Mark after finishing second in today’s Japanese Grand Prix.

“It’s a great circuit and I’ll never forget the first sector today,” said Mark after claiming pole position for tomorrow’s Japanese Grand Prix. “it’s what us guys strive for and it’s what our profession is all about; driving that is a real highlight for us.”

“The track is a special one and in terms of difficulty, it’s right up there,” said Mark after a positive day one at Suzuka

“The sport has a long heritage in the country and Suzuka is a fabulous place to drive an F1 car. It’s one of the tracks that every driver looks forward to driving because it’s so challenging and it punishes mistakes,” says Mark as the cars prepare for the opening session of practice this morning.

“The pace of the car was good and I thought I could pick up a podium at this stage of the race,” says Mark. “I always enjoy dicing with Fernando, but it was difficult to do too much proper racing due to the tyres.”

For the second race in succession, Mark’s race went up in flames, this time as a result of a wayward Adrian Sutil running into him.

“We had to take a bit of pace out of the car for qualifying, not much, but it was about how to compromise between qualifying and the race tomorrow.” explained Mark after qualifying third for tomorrow’s South Korean GP. Mark however, will start 13th due to his 10-place grid penalty.

“We need to have a car which can be strong in the first sector, so we can get some overtaking done,” says Mark after Friday’s two practice sessions.