Russia’s Vitaly Petrov has produced his best race for Caterham in Formula 1’s finals stage in Brazil, propelling his team to the much desired tenth position in the Constructors Championships.

"What an incredible race,” Petrov told Caterham’s official website. “I'm so pleased for the whole team and I want to thank every single one of them for doing such a fantastic job in the conditions today. Seeing what regaining tenth place in the championship meant to everyone when I got back to the garage was really special, and I think we deserve it after all the hard work we've put in throughout the whole year.”

The Russian stopped one place short of winning Caterham’s first-ever point in a rainy race at the Interlagos circuit.

But the 11th place finish was enough for his team to pass Marussia in the table and bag the 10th spot in the standings, which provides big bonuses according to F1’s Concorde Agreement.

"On track it was one of the hardest races I've ever been in, but also one of the best," the 28-year-old said. "I had a great start, passed a lot of cars and avoided all the problems in turn four, and from then I was pushing as much as I could as the conditions kept changing. We made the right calls today on the stops and every time I came in the boys were perfect. The change to inters on lap 54 is I think what made the difference today. I had a good battle with Pic until the last few laps, but then got him into turn three and just pulled away. From there it was all about keeping it on track – and when I heard the safety car was coming out and I knew I had one lap left to go, it was such a great feeling.”

“Now we can celebrate, and everyone has earned it – all the team on track, the factory back in Leafield, our team partners and our technical partners Renault Sport F1 and Red Bull Technology," he added.

Meanwhile, Petrov’s future in Caterham is still in question, with his great display in Brazil one possible reason for him to part with the team.

It’s ironic, but reports claim that Caterham may use the prize money for the 10th place to fund the contract of their No.1 driver, Heikki Kovalainen of Finland.

The second seat in the team is already booked by Frenchman Charles Pic, who spent last season at Marussia.

• A Permanent Economic Emergency