Miami GP || May 5 || 16h00 (Local time)
3 May 2024
HRT satisfied after positive Chinese Grand Prix
HRT continue improving after their second race finish
After yet another positive Grand Prix, Spanish outfit HRT are satisfied after finishing 21st and 22nd in the Chinese Grand Prix. In only their second race in 2012, after failing to qualify in Australia, HRT have finished ahead of one of the Caterham’s and successfully completed the 56-lap race incident free.
With both drivers’ suffering from a poor start, they were able to get themselves into a good rhythm which set them up for a positive race. Pedro de la Rosa was able to finish only one lap off the leaders’ whereas Karthikeyan finished two laps adrift, as the team continue closing the gap to the front.
"I’m happy with the race we did.” Explained Pedro de la Rosa, “It’s true that the start wasn’t great but I was able to maintain a good rhythm afterwards, especially with the medium tyres. We had an interesting fight with Kovalainen, which is always stimulating, and at the start we had the Marussia’s in our sights during various laps. We leave here with a feeling that we’ve taken an important stride and that we’re right in the fight. The overall assessment is that we’ve progressed in every aspect, the pit stops are better every time, our rhythm is improving and the team is more of a unit.”
"My start was also quite poor, so we still have to do some work on the start system because it’s still new.” Said Narain Karthikeyan, who completed an incident free race. “It was quite difficult to drive on the option tyres because we had a problem and the car was moving a lot on the straight, we are yet to identify what the reason was for that so we’ll have to look into it and make sure we overcome it. We set out to finish the race this weekend in China and we’ve achieved it, so we have to be pleased about that.”
With the Formula 1 circus now moving swiftly on to Bahrain, there is no time to rest. HRT will be hoping to continue their improvements throughout next weekend, before F1 returns to Europe for the beginning of the European season in May.
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