Det ble en sjetteplass til Dennis Hauger i søndagens Formel 1-løp i Jeddah. I lørdagens løp mistet Hauger ledelsen på grunn av rekke uheldige omstendigheter. Les mer i denne pressemeldingen fra Red Bull Junior Team.
Liam Lawson took a brilliant F2 Sprint Race win in Jeddah from P5 on the grid with fellow Red Bull Junior Jüri Vips matching his charge and taking second from P6.
Jehan Daruvala suffered technical issues in Qualifying but produced a superb performance in the Feature Race, cutting through from 14th to 3rd after 13th to 7th on Saturday.
Dennis Hauger was robbed of a great Sprint Race result due to a Safety Car restart mix up. He finished a fine 6th in the Feature Race just ahead of Ayumu Iwasa who was fast all weekend and had himself been 6th on Saturday.
Lawson wins and should have had more
“A good start to the weekend with Qualifying,” enthused the 20-year-old New Zealander. “The car was really really fast, very happy with the speed. Unfortunately we didn’t get to do the last Quali push so didn’t end up quite where we wanted to be but we were confident going into the races that we would be competitive.”
“And we were, really enjoyed the Sprint Race to get the first win of the season and take the lead in the championship.”
“Unfortunately we didn’t hang on to that today. A great start to the race, got up into P3 quickly and it was all looking good but then lost it all at the pit stop. Mistakes happen, that’s racing, very disappointing obviously,” admitted Lawson referring to the forced retirement due to a faulty wheel change.
“We have plenty of positives from the weekend to carry forward, knowing we have been very competitive in the opening weekends.”
Daruvala recovers with great drives
“All in all, a weekend of ups and downs,” explained the 23-year-old Indian “Qualifying 14th was very disappointing. After, we found out that I had a broken component on the rear of my car which completely limits any performance.”
“It was massively performance limiting and after we found that it gave me confidence that I could move forward in the races and we really did that.”
“So yesterday we moved from 13th to 7th and then today from 14th to 3rd without any Safety Cars, just on pure pace so it was really really fun.”
“I did one triple overtake in the beginning of the race which was great fun and then I had a lot of pace on Prime. So I am really happy with the way that weekend panned out after Qualifying. But now we need to just sort out our Qualifying troubles and qualify higher up.”
Vips podiums but misses out with pit stall
“A disappointing day today,” admitted the 21-year-old Estonian. “The weekend started OK, we had pace but we were blocked in Quali. If we had been free to do a clean lap we would have been fine as the car had some pace:”
“In Race 1 I think I maximised the situation and it was good to get on the podium, I enjoyed that one.”
“Today it was a big error from my side. I stalled it at the pit stop. That shouldn’t happen, it was just down to me.”
“After that it was tough, it’s a hard circuit to follow and we didn’t have the pace we had last weekend. We are about a tenth, a tenth and half off where we need to be. We will be aiming to close that next time out.”
Hauger impressive in Jeddah debut
“A bit of a tough weekend,” stated the 19-year-old Norwegian. “In FP we only got one push lap and it’s obviously a new track for me and the first time on a street circuit so it was important to get the mileage but didn’t really get it.”
“In Qualifying we only got to do 2 push laps and got the Red Flag at the end every time so used unnecessary fuel so didn’t manage to push again at the end like some did. So I was P6 until right at the end then P10. Not the worst, first time on a street circuit and not too far away.”
“Started Pole in Race 1, got a really good launch and had some good pace in the first few laps in P1.”
“Then the big confusion with the Safety Car restart, we basically got the confirmation from the Race Director to go through the pits but the signal on the track said I was not supposed to go into the pit so we asked again for confirmation. The team kept telling me to go through the pits. So obviously when they tell me that the Race Director has confirmed then I have to listen. It was quite confusing and destroyed my whole race.”
“We were definitely up for a podium or a win so that was quite a rough day.”
“Then today, we started on Prime, that was different to most others. I think in the end, starting on Option like the others was a bit quicker with the temps going down but it was worth the try. I got up from P10 to P6 and I got some rhythm, got some laps in and improved my driving. Obviously most of the drivers had done 3 races there last year so it was about mileage as well.”
“P6 in the end I would say is a bit of a win considering the whole weekend. The start of the season has been a bit unlucky so it was goood just to have a clean race and find some rhythm and feeling with everything. So that I can definitely take with me. Positive things definitely even if it wasn’t a perfect weekend.”
Iwasa quickly learning to be fast
“Basically it was not a good and not a bad race weekend for me,” stated the 20-year-old Japanese who was driving in Jeddah for the fist time. “I had a good Free Practice and Qualifying, which was really good for me because, as I explained, the biggest improvement I had to make was in high speed driving.”
“So when I started here I had good pace already so that was very positive. But in Quali I think I lost some position by strategy, because I didn’t have enough fuel to push at the end. Still, I think that P7 was really good.”
“In the Sprint Race the pace was really bad because my braking was very bad, the problem was temperature through brake management so that was something I needed to improve. Also the car was not good enough. We should have improved everything, from diving side and car side.”
“Today, in the Feature Race the car was much better than yesterday, also I could manage the brakes much better.”
“I had really good pace with the soft tyre so I could overtake some cars. But after we changed the tyres I lost some time in the out lap and also the general pace was very bad. With the medium tyre we didn’t have good pace, so on that we need to improve.”
“Mainly I think it should be my improvement because I had the feeling that the car was not so bad with the medium but the pace was not there. So I will check the data and I will improve tyre management and brake management as well,” concluded the Honda Formula Dream Project driver.