Korean GP: Jean-Eric Vergne says run to eighth his best drive in F1

The Toro Rosso driver, starting from 16th place, put on a strong performance to climb up to eighth by the chequered flag, equalling his best result in grand prix racing.

The result meant the Frenchman moved ahead of team-mate Daniel Ricciardo in the standings with 12 points.

"I am really, really happy, as this was definitely my best race of the year and the car worked well with very little tyre degradation on both the prime and the option," said Vergne.

"Towards the end, I was told that my team-mate had a problem, but overall for the team, to get eighth and ninth with Daniel also driving a great race is a fantastic result.

"Everyone in the team worked very hard on improving the car throughout the weekend. In general, we seem to be making progress and this track seemed to suit us well, which I think we can also expect to be the case in India."

Ricciardo was running in front of Vergne near the end of the race, but a car problem meant the Australian lost the position to Vergne.

"With about 10 laps to go, I found myself going straight on at Turn 3 and at first I thought it must have been a suspension failure because the car suddenly shot to the left and I could not stop it," he said.

"However, I realised I could keep going, even if every time I braked the car pulled to the left and I was locking the front a lot. Unfortunately, that cost me eighth place, but at least I was able to give it up to my team-mate.

"I'm still grateful to be in the points with such a problem, although it's a case of mixed emotions, as it would have been my best result of the season. But for the team overall, it's been a very good day."