Sunday: the F112 successfully passed the Bahrain test
Apart from significant tire degradation, the HRT drivers did not encounter any problems today during the Bahrain Grand Prix. Pedro de la Rosa finished 20th, just ahead of Narain Karthikeyan. Both men are delighted with their performances and are eager to do better once F1 returns to Europe.
Pedro de la Rosa – 20th
«It was a difficult race, but we finished with both of our cars, and that is positive for the team. The fact is that our pace was not as good as hoped. We need to be a bit faster, but even more because we want to regularly fight with our rivals. During today’s race, we didn’t have enough pace.
It is true, however, that we have recently made a step forward but we cannot be satisfied with it. We have improved tremendously but we are in the starting blocks when we should have been in Australia. We have good individuals on the team, a new seat from which we can build on a solid base, and that is the most positive point. Now, we want to get back to working on the single-seater and try new things. We look forward to returning to Europe.
Narain Karthikeyan – 21st
The start was good today, but then the first laps were difficult because there was sand everywhere. I positioned myself behind Pedro but I think I attacked too hard during the first stint because my tires were dead very quickly. After my first stop, I improved a lot and from there my lap times were consistent. We adopted a four-stop strategy, and it went well according to me, and in the end, we were only half a second behind Pedro under the checkered flag. My performance during the race was really very good, I must say that it has been my best Grand Prix this season so far, so I’m really happy.
