Timo Glock managed to qualify ahead of his teammate for the first race of the 2011 season, but that is where his luck ended. Despite being cool and calm on the grid, ready for the challenge, the car underneath him wasn't quite as determined.

After his first pitstop, the Virgin driver found reliability let him down. Glock says: "Unfortunately at the pitstop the front left wheel was loose and I had to drive round for one lap very slowly then come into the pits. Unfortunately the drive pegs were damaged but we repaired it, and I at least was able to rejoin the race. For the first couple of laps it was okay but then the car had quite a lot of vibration, so I just tried to focus on finishing the race."

Although he did last the full duration of the race, Glock finished nine laps down which meant he was unclassified.