A missed opportunity for Sauber to score points in Bahrain
Qualified 12th and 13th on Saturday, Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson could legitimately think about scoring some points this Sunday on the Sakhir circuit. But a pit stop that was too long for the Swede and a power issue for the Brazilian decided otherwise.
After frustrating qualifying sessions that saw both Sauber drivers fail in Q2, Monisha Kaltenborn, the Swiss team’s director, was expecting an aggressive race this Sunday.
It was not without some difficulties encountered during the race that prevented Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson from doing better than 12th and 14th: » There is no doubt that today we missed a realistic chance to score points, confides Kaltenborn. « We encountered a technical problem during Marcus’s second pit stop that made him lose a lot of time. And we are sorry for that. On Felipe’s side, he also lost time due to a temporary power loss issue. The engineers were able to resolve the problem within a few laps, but the loss of time was already too great. Our two drivers fought well, but we were not rewarded. »
Ericsson, frustrated despite a good start to the race, reflects on his pit stop incident that caused him to lose all the gains made, notably at the start where he moved from 13th to 9th place: « Of course, it’s very disappointing. But these things happen in racing. We win and lose together. Nonetheless, we’ve shown acceptable performances and that will count for the next race in Barcelona. »
