Top-10 almost
Between bad luck and problems managing tire wear, two teams that had difficulty reaching the points zone last year came close to doing so in the Bahrain GP. In addition to Haas, with Magnussen finishing in 12th place, he ranked just ahead of the Dane Guanyu Zhouon the former Alfa Romeo now known as F1 Stakes.
The Chinese driver, who was even in the top-10 for a good part of the race, was however unable to defend tenth position, nevertheless standing out as one of the best riders of the day in the mid-group battle: “We maximized everything we had, and they are happy to have fought so close to the points – commented – we had a clean race with a good start in which I managed to recover a few positions, but keeping the Aston Martins behind without wearing the tires too much was a challenge. Luckily I managed to defend myself from Magnussen and the whole group behind me. We made progress over the weekend, and the team worked hard to find the right set up. Unfortunately, in a race without retirements, we were unable to score points without anything happening to the cars in front of us. We still have to improve and we will continue to work on our performances to be able to fight more for the points zone in Jeddah and in the next races.”
Better car, but a lot of bad luck
His teammate, however, was decidedly more unlucky Valtteri Bottas. Due to two incidents which occurred at different moments of the race, the former Mercedes driver was effectively excluded from the fight for the top-10, as demonstrated by his 19th and penultimate place in the rankings:
“Unfortunately it wasn't my day – he has declared – I made a good start, but then I stayed involved in the contact in Turn 1 between Hülkenberg and Stroll, in which I suffered damage to the front wing which caused me to lose ground and performance. In addition, we also had a problem with a nut during my second pit stop which made me waste even more time. Luck wasn't on our side, but hopefully that's the end of it for the rest of the season. The positive thing is that our pace was decidedly better than that of our direct competitors, so much so that Zhou almost finished in the points. This shows that we have a better car than last year and gives us more confidence ahead of the next round in Jeddah.”
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