Scuderia Toro Rosso driver Brendon Hartley has finished a solid 12th in the Spanish Formula One Grand Prix. Having crashed heavily in practice 3, the Kiwi driver was unable to take part in qualifying on Saturday and started from the rear of the grid for Sunday’s race.
“I had a clean start and made up a few positions on the first lap,” commented Hartley. “The mechanics did an amazing job to get the car ready for today – it was actually finished last night – we just had to do the car setup this morning.
“We decided to pit under the first safety car and go straight on to the medium to effectively do a one-stop. It worked, but it meant we lost a lot a couple of positions in the beginning.
“It was difficult to overtake today, I think some of the cars around us had a bit more top speed which made life difficult. I had a good overtake on Marcus at the end to get 12th and if I had made the overtake a little bit earlier there would have been the chance for 11th as well, because the pace was definitely there at the end of the race.”
Hartley’s team mate Pierre Gasly who had qualified in 12th suffered damage from a collision on the opening lap and retired from the race.
“Starting from P12, we were two positions away from P10 so points were clearly the target,” commented Gasly. “Unfortunately, we couldn’t achieve any, which is a shame. It’s only the fifth race of the season but it’s a missed opportunity. The crash with Romain at the start was a big mess, I saw some space on the inside with Nico and I tried to cut the corner as much as possible, but suddenly he came back completely towards us. It took both Nico and myself out.
“It seems like every weekend I have a peak of adrenaline with different incidents! Clearly it’s a big shame not to be able to fight with the others and get a good result.
“The impact was big but I am fine, I’m just disappointed to be out on lap 1, because you work all weekend for the race and the chance to fight for points, but the excitement ended pretty quickly. Now we just need to focus on the test next week.”
Lewis Hamilton made it back-to-back Formula 1 victories as he headed home a dominant Mercedes one-two ahead of team mate Valtteri Bottas.
Race results
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 66 1h35m29.972s
2 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 66 20.593s
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Renault 66 26.873s
4 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 66 27.584s
5 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull/Renault 66 50.058s
6 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 65 1 Lap
7 Carlos Sainz Renault 65 1 Lap
8 Fernando Alonso McLaren/Renault 65 1 Lap
9 Sergio Perez Force India/Mercedes 64 2 Laps
10 Charles Leclerc Sauber/Ferrari 64 2 Laps
11 Lance Stroll Williams/Mercedes 64 2 Laps
12 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso/Honda 64 2 Laps
13 Marcus Ericsson Sauber/Ferrari 64 2 Laps
14 Sergey Sirotkin Williams/Mercedes 63 3 Laps
– Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren/Renault 45 Gearbox
– Esteban Ocon Force India/Mercedes 38 Oil leak
– Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 25 Power Unit
– Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 0 Collision
– Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso/Honda 0 Collision
– Nico Hulkenberg Renault 0 Collision
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