The Sauber team’s best result in the Bahrain Grand Prix was eleventh place for Guanyu Zhou. His teammate Valtteri Bottas finished nineteenth – at the start, the Finn damaged his front wing in the first corner and then lost time due to a hiccup during a pit stop.
Guanyu Zhou (11th): “Today we did our best and I’m happy that I fought and almost earned points. I had a good start, gained a few positions and drove a flawless race, but it was quite difficult to keep the Aston Martin behind me without damaging the tires. Fortunately I was able to keep Kevin Magnussen and the others behind me.
We made progress all weekend and the team worked hard to find the optimal settings. Unfortunately, in a race without retirements we could not count on points. We still have to improve in many ways, so the team will continue to work on increasing the speed to have a better chance of earning points in Jeddah and in the subsequent races.”
Valtteri Bottas (19th): “Unfortunately today was not my day. I had a good start, but in the first corner I was involved in an incident between Nico Hulkenberg and Lance Stroll – my front wing was damaged, which led to the loss of some downforce and speed.
Moreover, at the second pit stop there was a problem with a wheel nut, which caused me to lose extra time. Luck was not on our side, but I hope this is the end of our bad luck this season.
Positive results include the fact that our pace is definitely faster than that of our main rivals – Zhou finished close to the top ten. This shows that the racing speed of the new car is better than that of last year. This gives me confidence for the race in Jeddah next week.”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
