Saturday, 18 April 2015

Points still possible despite just missing out on the top ten

(Sauber F1 Team)

The Sauber F1 Team will be hoping to secure some more points following their second double points scoring finish of the season in China last weekend at tomorrow’s Bahrain Grand Prix at the Sakhir International Circuit where Marcus Ericsson will start the race from 12th place while his team mate Felipe Nasr will start the event from 13th place.

Speaking following the session Marcus Ericsson stated:

First of all, FP3 was a difficult session. I struggled a lot to get a good feeling in the car and it was quite windy on track. Towards the end of the session we managed to sort things out and driving wise it felt better. In Qualifying we knew beforehand it would be a close competition. Certainly, we would have liked to be in Q3 again, but overall we did a decent job. We are in good shape for tomorrow’s race.

Felipe Nasr who along with Max Verstappen has been fantastic so far this season will be aiming for another big haul of points for the Sauber F1 Team and starting from 13th place on the grid this could be possible. Speaking following the session, the Brazilian stated:

It was a shame to just miss out on Q3 because of less than a tenth, but I think we extracted the maximum out of the car. It was difficult in Q1 as some of our competitors seem to be very strong. Twelfth is a good starting position for tomorrow. Considering our good pace during the long-runs, I am confident about fighting for points.

The Hinwil based outfit go into the race on Sunday in fourth place in the championship on 19 points. Speaking ahead of the event, Sauber’s Head of Track Engineering Giampaolo Dall’Ara commented by saying:

In FP3 we had a bit of a more troubled session than we were expecting. The weather changed, as it was windier with more sand on the track. We had to follow up on the set-up of our cars, but I think by qualifying we were there. The session went quite well. However, we were hoping for something a little better, but we are not far off the competition, and with the places we achieved we are in a good position for the race tomorrow.’

Sauber have had the strongest start to a Formula One season in a number of years in 2015 and Team Principal Monisha Keltenborn stated:

It’s a very tight result, as could be expected. Nevertheless, these are satisfying positions for the start of the race. Based on our long-runs, we are able to see that the chances for points are there, and that’s what we have to concentrate on.

© Ben Johnston 2015

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