Virgin Racing emerged from their very first qualifying session as the best of the new boys In Bahrain this afternoon after Timo Glock ended the day exactly where he said he wanted to be, as the fastest new team driver of the Q1 session albeit 2.7 seconds away from the established teams.

“It’s great to be the best of the new teams here today and I’m very happy with what we have achieved. This is a Team result and a credit to everyone who has worked so hard in really difficult circumstances to get the best out of our first race package,” he said.

“To also be just 2.7 seconds away from teams with many more years of experience is even better. We have a big mountain to climb but we go into our debut race having achieved our first target and I think this will give us the momentum we need to keep on pushing. It just goes to show we are going in the right direction and all we have to do is focus on overcoming the hurdles we were bound to come across along the way. Thanks to everyone at Virgin Racing.”

Meanwhile, his team-mate Lucas di Grassi also had a solid debut qualifying session, ending Q1 in 22nd position. Despite his low position the rookie racer is looking forward to his debut Formula ine event here tomorrow...

“First of all I'd like to say a big thanks to the team,” he said. “They have put in so much effort to make this team and today happen for us. For us to be here with a healthy car is fantastic. For me it was still the very beginning, I only did three laps in the session this morning due to the issues we had. I'm quite happy to have done my first qualifying in F1. I know there are a lot of opportunities for us and plenty of scope for improvement.”

After a tough few days of round the clock preparation, today’s result was a much-deserved boost for the race team in Bahrain and the rest of the team back in the UK who have all worked tirelessly to ensure Virgin Racing’s first race gets off to the best possible start tomorrow.