We're off and running: Virgin

And Di Grassi, who drove superbly to pilot the car home, said: “It showed that we are truly competitive and it’s a great feeling that our fight has really started now.”

After four retirements in the opening two rounds, plus speculation that the car fuel cells weren’t big enough to complete a race, Virgin were left celebrating after Brazilian Di Grassi comfortably completed the Sepang race.

He said: “It was a very tough race both physically and mentally but I’m so happy to bring the Virgin Racing car home to the finish.

“ I had a great start and was able to make up five places on the opening lap. We had very good early pace and continued to be strong, despite losing my front wing end-plate when Heikki Kovalainen tried to overtake me."