19/04/2015
NEWS STORY
The Manor Marussia F1 Team delivered another solid race performance and its second consecutive two-car finish in today's Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix at Sakhir. Will Stevens ended the race in 16th place, while Roberto took the chequered flag in 17th position, bringing the opening round of long haul races to a generally positive conclusion.
Will Stevens: "Overall I'm pretty pleased with my race. It didn't get off to the best start because of Maldonado being out of grid position, so that meant Roberto got away ahead of me. We had a good duel for me to get that back but by the time I was able to get by 8 laps in, I'd lost a lot of time. The positive thing is that when I was back with the pack, the pace is good and it's pretty impressive that we're bringing both cars home when you can see from other teams that it's no mean feat. Massive congratulations to the team for an incredible job in this first part of the season. Obviously the job gets harder still as we head to Europe, but everyone is very motivated by our achievements so far."
Roberto Merhi: "It was good to bring both cars home again and to see that as a team we continue to make good progress. I was a little disappointed with my race as it started out well with a good battle with my teammate Will. After pushing so hard in the early part of the opening stint, when he did get by I had used the tyre, so I started to lose time to him and I wasn't able to make that back. Overall, we have learned such a lot from the first phase of the season and now that we have some time to reflect on that, I think we will be even better equipped for the start of the European races. My thanks and congratulations to the team for all that we have achieved together so far."
John Booth, Team Principal: "After a really smooth weekend here in Bahrain, another two car finish is exactly how we wanted to close out the first round of long haul races. That achievement really cannot be underestimated when you see the difficulties being experienced up and down the pit lane through the weekend. So we head back to Europe feeling justifiably proud of how far we've come in such a short space of time, albeit we are very aware that the challenge kicks up a notch from here. Our two drivers have done a very commendable job to cope with everything that we've thrown at them with the minimum of preparation and the team have worked so hard to get us back to a very strong operational level. The three week break from racing gives us the chance to reflect and evaluate all the data we've been able to gather, then come back stronger still for Barcelona."
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