Pressiteade
Racing,however, took a secondary concern today following two separate incidents in theGrand Prix. The first involved Haas F1 Team Driver Romain Grosjean, who crashedheavily into the safety barriers on the first lap. The second, shortly afterthe race was restarted, saw Lance Stroll’s Racing Point car flipped on itshead.
Renault DPWorld F1 Team wishes former driver Romain and Lance a swift recovery from theincidents.
It was far fromplain sailing in the 57-lap race for the team with positions swapping andchanging throughout with many drivers committing to multiple pit-stops afterthe second restart.
Daniel pittedon lap 17 for Hard tyres and again on lap 37 for the same compound as hefinished in seventh place.
Esteban – aftera quick start on the second restart – pitted for Mediums on lap 18 and again onlap 35 for Hards, which took him to the end. Both drivers duelled on trackmomentarily with Daniel able to pull away to chase down sixth place. Hisefforts fell short as the race finished under the Safety Car after a problemfor Sergio Perez with Esteban holding on to ninth.
DanielRicciardo, started P6, finished P7:
“Firstly, I’mglad Romain is OK after the incident. The result today does not matter so muchafter that and it’s a bit of an afterthought. To see him escape and walk awaywas a relief and I wish him the best in his recovery. That’s the main thingfrom today. In terms of our race, it certainly wasn’t what we wanted but wegave it our best and we still managed to score points. We’ll focus on next weekwhen it comes, it’s still to play for in the championship and we’ll come backstronger.”
EstebanOcon, started P7, finished P9:
“The first, andmain thing, is the news of Romain [Grosjean] and I wish him a very fastrecovery. It was a crazy incident. The team told me in the car that he wasalright, but looking at the images, I struggled to believe it. It’s a miraclethat he’s fine and I’m glad to hear he’s OK. Our race was secondary to that incident today.We have plenty to review from the race as the McLarens were a bit quicker thanus. We’ll push on see what we can do next weekend on the shorter layout and tryand claim some points back.”
Cyril Abiteboul, Team Principal:
“After a very promising qualifyingwith both drivers into the top ten on Medium tyres, Daniel starting sixth andEsteban seventh, this race is clearly disappointing. We lost positions duringthe two starts, the first with Esteban and the second with Daniel, whichhampered our race and impacted our strategy with early stops. In the secondstint, both cars failed to find the pace and we will have to understand why. Bythe end of the race, Daniel was on the pace again and would have finished sixthwithout the safety car intervention. The final result of this weekend is not upto our ambitions and we need to regroup very quickly for the last two races. Ialso wish Romain a speedy recovery after this terrible accident and I hope tosee him back behind the wheel before the end of the season."
