Assessment of the French: Romain Grosjean finally comes up for air!
With a magnificent 4th place, Romain Grosjean ends his losing streak by scoring the first points of his season. Esteban Ocon completes the French success with a fine 6th place, ahead of his teammate, while Pierre Gasly experienced a difficult end to the race outside the points.
The losing streak of Romain Grosjean had to come to an end someday. And the Frenchman put an end to it in the best possible way by finishing this Austrian Grand Prix just shy of the podium.
The only driver yet to score points before the race alongside Sergey Sirotkin, the Haas driver suddenly racks up 12 and feels a true relief as he steps out of his car after very tough months: « For our 50th race with Haas, it’s true that it feels good, especially finishing 4th and 5th. It feels good to score points. I’ve taken so many hits that, you know, I keep my happiness to myself a bit and I hope my children are proud of me, I know they would have wanted a trophy but hey, I did my best. Of course, it feels good after a somewhat difficult period. It was a perfect weekend, we need to keep doing this. The team really deserves it. It’s huge. Fourth place, it’s been a long time since I finished this well, even if we always dream of more. It was a great race! »
The French driver’s race was not smooth sailing and he is aware that the double retirement of the Mercedes cars worked in his favor: « We tried to fight with the big guns at the beginning but we couldn’t. We made a pretty daring strategy with a stop under the virtual safety car and 55 laps on soft tires, which were not pretty by the end of the race. But well, we finished, it’s extraordinary. We were a little helped by the Mercedes cars not finishing. »
NEWS: @RGrosjean‘s fourth-place drive is the best finish for #HaasF1 in its three-year tenure, and with @KevinMagnussen securing fifth, it marked the best collective result for the American squad!
Full #AustrianGP race report> https://t.co/2ih61JbBQW pic.twitter.com/ytn2Bm6Q4E
— Haas F1 Team (@HaasF1Team) 1 juillet 2018
Esteban Ocon also had a smile after the race. The Norman finishes his Austrian Grand Prix in a convincing 6th place, ahead of his teammate Sergio Pérez: « I am happy with this result and it is a very good day for the team. We can be really satisfied with our performance today. We managed our tires well and made only one stop while others around us struggled with their rubber. We kept our tires until the end and also showed great teamwork with Checo [Pérez] when we swapped places to chase Magnussen. I think we demonstrated the strength of our team. » stated the Force India driver after the race.
Finally, the only discontented Frenchman was Pierre Gasly, who was long in the Top 10 during the race but lost everything in the final laps against Fernando Alonso’s McLaren and the two Saubers of Marcus Ericsson and Charles Leclerc: « Honestly, it was one of the toughest races I’ve ever had because after contacting Stoffel at turn 3, the rear suspension was bent, and I lost half of the rear floor. From that point, I was sliding everywhere and struggling a lot with the car. I was lucky to make it to the end because I went off track nearly twenty times during the race while trying to keep on course. I gave it my all, but honestly, it was more like driving in Rallycross than in Formula 1, it was pretty tough. » concluded the Toro Rosso driver.
