Friday's surprise
The qualifications of Bahrain Grand Prix they ended with the surprising passage to Q3 of Nico Hülkenberg's Haas, which allowed the German driver to enter the top-10 and obtain an unexpected placing in tenth position. However, the start of the race compromised the hopes of a points finish for the #27 right from the start.
After hitting Stroll at the entrance to Turn 1, Hülkenberg suffered a damage to the front wingwith the immediate return to the pits to replace the latter and the conclusion of the GP at 16th place. His teammate, however, is closer to the points Kevin Magnussen, 12th at the finish line and did well to repel the attacks at the end of the two Racing Bulls, first that of Tsunoda and then that of Ricciardo, indirectly unleashing the anger of the Japanese with his teammate.
The steps forward
No points for the US team, this year no longer led by Günther Steiner but by the new team principal Ayao Komatsu, even if some positive points arose over the weekend in Bahrain: “I'm quite happy – not over the moon, as we didn't get any points – but it seems like we have a car this year that it goes a little better with the tiresnot necessarily faster than last year but at least better with the tyres, and I think we showed that today – explained Magnussen – however, it's only one track, one piece of asphalt, and one set of conditions, so we have yet to prove it elsewhere. It's been a positive two weeks of work, the team did a great job and we're in a good position, we just need to find more.”
A satisfaction that Hülkenberg also shares, although saddened by the initial episode that ruined his race: “It's very frustrating and disappointing, and it was a very similar scenario to last year at Turn 4 at the start – he added – the positive note is that our race pace and tire degradation seemed quite reasonable compared to the other mid-table riders, and I think we are fighting with Williams, Sauber and RB, so I think we take that as a positive. After today there will be other results, things to improve and optimize. Jeddah is obviously a very different circuit, with completely different characteristics, so we'll see what we can achieve, but it seems like we have a much better base to work from than last year.”
#Tire #degradation #step #Haas
