15/09/2024
NEWS STORY
MoneyGram Haas F1 Team finished with Oliver Bearman 10th and Nico Hulkenberg 11th, at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Round 17 of the 2024 FIA Formula 1 World Championship, held Sunday at the Baku City Circuit.
Bearman took the start from 10th position, with Hulkenberg 12th, and both used Pirelli P Zero Yellow medium tires for the opening phase of the race. Bearman held position while Hulkenberg lost a couple of spots, though swiftly regained them to run in 12th. Bearman ceded a spot to the charging Lando Norris before the drivers swapped positions, with Hulkenberg holding 11th and Bearman 12th. Bearman pitted on lap 14 for White hard tires with Hulkenberg following suit one lap later, also changing onto the harder compound tire.
Hulkenberg cycled through the pit stop phase in 12th, with Bearman 13th, before both passed Alpine's Pierre Gasly. Hulkenberg then overhauled the Williams of Franco Colapinto to move into the top 10, though the off-sequence Alex Albon and Lewis Hamilton moved ahead. A late clash between Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz eliminated both drivers, while Bearman overhauled Hulkenberg to take 10th, ensuring he claimed a point on his MoneyGram Haas F1 Team debut.
The result enables MoneyGram Haas F1 Team to close to within five points of RB in the battle for sixth in the Constructors' Championship.
Nico Hulkenberg: "It was actually going better than expected to be honest; we managed to find some rhythm and pace today which I'm very happy and pleased about. Unfortunately, in the last few laps I faced some issues, and with the accident at the end I got caught off guard. For me, it was a straight safety car or even red flag as there was some real carnage down the straight. It was instead then a green flag, and I lost positions there and lost the result unfortunately. The whole track was covered in debris, and I ran over a massive piece which I couldn't see because of a car in front of me. It was a pretty crazy two last laps, but unfortunately not in our favor."
Oliver Bearman: "I missed some pace in the first stint and lost a few positions there and that put me a bit behind in the race as I got some traffic and lost some time. In the second stint, I'm quite happy with the performance. It's tough when you're trying to overtake, you really have to push the tires and they get hot, so I was pushing hard to overtake Franco (Colapinto), and eventually Lewis (Hamilton) overtook me, so he was using his experience there to do that. I wasn't going to finish in the points but there was some misfortune in front of me which allowed me to do so."
Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: "Purely from Ollie's driving, I thought it was a really good job. Yes, he was overly managing the tire earlier, but the team should've done better to inform Ollie during the first stint. The pace really hindered his race but once he realized he was over-managing, he picked it up and had awareness. I think it's brilliant to bring home P10 and a much-needed point for the team. All in all with Ollie, he had a setback in FP3, and underperformed in Q2, but overall it's impressive.
"On Nico's side, his race was strong and it may not be a track he gets on well with but today, he was really strong. He had a good feel on the car and on the tires, he was doing a much better job in the first stint. On his second stint on hards, it was amazing, he really managed them, but it's a shame that with two laps to go he hit the wall on the right-hand side and lost position to Colapinto. When he was recovering from that, the accident happened with the yellow flag coming out. Nico hit something big, I'm not sure what, but when he saw the green light he didn't react quick enough, so Hamilton and Ollie overtook him. The positives are that we had the race pace, and even at one of Nico's worst tracks, he was very competitive. I'm sure we can fight for points for the rest of the season."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Baku here.