Grosjean opens his points account at Sakhir

Grosjean appreciates the desert!

A fine cook in his spare time, the ex-Lotus driver can always count on the Bahrain event as an appetizer. Indeed, after two consecutive podiums in 2012 and 2013, and the joy of a fifth-place finish in 2016 with Haas, Romain Grosjean truly begins his 2017 season with a somewhat more modest, yet still pleasing ranking.

Parti ninth, the native of Geneva initially held onto his position until the 13th lap and the intervention of the safety car. Hardly affected by the multiple retirements of his direct competitors, he consistently navigated within the points zone. The Frenchman still regrets the neutralization, which cost him a position, to say the least.

« It was a pretty good race. I had a decent start, and my first stint was good. But it was hard to stay behind the Renault. Then, we were unlucky with the safety car; I pitted just before it. I then saw Pérez coming out of the pits and wondered how he managed to get ahead of me when he was 10 seconds behind! He actually gained twelve seconds, which cost us a position. »

On a two-stop strategy, Grosjean fitted the soft tires on lap 32 to reach the finish. Still ninth, he passed Daniil Kyvat’s Toro Rosso on lap 38 to move up a position. He finally managed to hold on to this position until the checkered flag.

« On the restart, I struggled a bit on the straight. But we still made the right strategy and attacked a few laps, with some beautiful overtaking maneuvers. So we are P8, it feels good to score points! » Now there’s nothing left to do but enjoy his 31st birthday, which he will celebrate this Monday.

“`html
Less success for Magnussen
“`

Eighth place seven days ago, the Dane won’t hold this race fondly in his heart, far from it. Starting fifteenth but dropping to twentieth after a botched start, the former McLaren driver’s race ended on the eighth lap when an electronic issue halted his progress.

The car stopped for an unexplained reason. I lost all power. The conditions before that were rather good. The tire degradation was better than expected and I was comfortable with the brakes. It would have been a good race. We had three races where the car was in the points zone. I’m looking forward to continuing!

On a general level, the Haas team confirms that it will once again be competing for mid-field positions. However, the reliability issues need to be urgently addressed. Already three retirements in three races for the team led by Gene Haas and Günther Steiner…