02/11/2024
NEWS STORY
MoneyGram Haas F1 Team drivers Oliver Bearman and Nico Hulkenberg kicked off Saturday morning in São Paulo with the Sprint - the fifth of six planned Sprint weekends on the 2024 FIA Formula 1 World Championship schedule. Bearman finished 14th with Hulkenberg having to retire his VF-24 following a gearbox issue.
Hulkenberg started the Sprint from P12 on used mediums, gaining three positions on the opening lap. The German held steadfast through the opening stage of the Sprint before tire wear played its part, Bearman passing him on lap nine. The German dropped a few more spots to P13, when on lap 21 a gearbox problem brought Hulkenberg's race to an early end, having to stop his car by the side of the track at Turn 10.
Bearman had a busy opening lap, battling cars both in front and behind, but maintained position before overtaking his teammate. Bearman faced similar issues on the used medium compound and was running P12 when a VSC was brought out for his teammate's stricken car. On the final lap, racing resumed but the Brit conceded two more places, classifying P14 at the checkered.
Saturday's scheduled qualifying was rained off after a delay of nearly two hours. Heavy showers descended onto the Autódromo José Carlos Pace 30 minutes before the session was due to begin, but standing water around the track rendered conditions unsafe, and the decision was taken to postpone qualifying until tomorrow morning, 07:30 (Local).
Nico Hulkenberg: "Firstly, thanks to everyone who stayed out in the rain - you really are some amazing fans. Regarding the Sprint, there was a lot of smoke coming from the car, and the team asked me to stop the car on the track. Up until then, it was going better than expected after yesterday, but I think we were struggling as a team with the tires - the high-deg nature and heat was making life hard for us. I'm ready for a spicy day tomorrow!"
Oliver Bearman: "I had quite a bad start in the Sprint but managed to make up a few spots on lap one. After that, things were feeling quite good but I gradually started to struggle with the tires more and more, and at the end we were just lacking pace, so we've got a lot of work to do. It's frustrating that qualifying didn't go ahead as I was looking forward to jumping back in the car after a tough Sprint, but thanks to the fans for hanging out with us. Hopefully, we get another good session tomorrow morning and it'll be a good one."
Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: "It's been a bit of a disappointing day because we didn't perform in the Sprint how we would've hoped, so we have a lot of things to improve on tomorrow. Everyone's on board with that and Nico wasn't happy with the car on Friday, so we changed the car for qualifying but unfortunately, with the rain and the diminishing daylight we couldn't get to see what the set-up change did. We're ready for tomorrow morning's qualifying and looking forward to having a better race pace tomorrow afternoon."
Check out our Saturday gallery from Sao Paulo here.