Hartley: Toro Rosso communication key to Hockenheim point

Brendon Hartley praised Toro Rosso for its excellent communication during Sunday's German Grand Prix after negotiating a mid-race rain shower to rise into the top 10 and score his second Formula 1 point.

Starting 16th, Hartley was able to battle his way up the order through the race, getting the jump on both Williams drivers before finding himself on the fringes of the points entering the closing stages.

A rain shower prompted a number of drivers to pit and gamble on a switch to intermediate or full wet tyres, but Hartley stayed out on slicks and ultimately clinched 10th place at the chequered flag, marking his second points finish in F1.

"I feel like I pretty much took the maximum out of it, I had some really good on-track battles. It wasn't always easy to battle the cars around us, because some of the cars definitely had more top speed than us," Hartley said.

"When the rain came, initially the team asked me to box. I said 'can I have one more lap?', we stayed out one more lap, then we saw we could do another. It was good communication between myself and the team to make the right decision to stay out there and bring home that one point. It was hard-fought in the end, I can guarantee you that.

"In some ways I was disappointed to lose the place to [Romain] Grosjean. He passed many cars after, he had a lot more speed than me. But I had to really fight at the end to keep [Kevin] Magnussen behind to hold on to that last point.

"It was a hard-fought race from the start to the end. I didn't make any mistakes at all. I was really happy with my performance and it was a good team effort to bring home the one point."

The on-off rain shower left Hartley talking closely with the team to try and work out the best strategy, with the New Zealander explaining how there was only one point he wanted to pit at, only for his strategist to warn against it.   

"The lap they called me to come in, it was still going to be much quicker on slicks as long as I could survive in Turn 6. If there was a downpour it was absolutely the wrong decision," Hartley said.

"I looked at the sky. I didn't go against the team, I just asked the question, 'OK, I think I can do one more lap'. There was good communication, it was teamwork.

"There was one lap in Turn 2 it got really wet. I said 'guys I think we have to box the next lap'. I think it was two laps before [Sebastian] Vettel went off. But the team gave me information that it wasn't going to get any worse and it was going to get better. They had this information, so initially, I said let's stay out, and then when I said I think we have to box now, they said 'no we're good to stay out'.

"It was good communication all around. In the car you can only see so much of the information, and you rely heavily on what the team sees coming on the weather radar.

"It was probably only a matter of time until there was going to be a Safety Car and somebody would go off."