Qatar GP: Race Notebook
motorsport-live.com March 20th, 2016
It was a cracker of at the sharp end of the grid as
Nikolai Surikov, who only managed eleventh place in qualifying and was very unhappy, somehow won the race.
"I screwed the laps in qualifying. Flatspotted the tires in the first lap, ran wide in the second lap, and spend the night in the simulator, and found something," a visibly happy
Surikov told the media at the press conference.
Chapman Frustrated:
"
Oliveira just came out of nowhere and parked the car on the middle of the corner, I could only run wide. Forcing another car of the track, but of course, she's a gal, and gals do not get fines." That one cost
Chapman a $10.000 fine from his team, and did not exactly help his cause.
After his
Steinmann and
Oliveira's
Windsor touched wheels in the first corner,
Chapman went wide and fell back into P20. He got up to P13 rather quickly but somehow his progress stalled there and finished fourteenth.
Flores Crosses Flag Last after Crash
Causing an collision, causing an avoidable accident. That is what cost
Lucía Flores after she went waay to deep in the breaking zone in turn 11 and ran into the back of
Aki Lipponen's
Windsor. The had to repair the front wing, and got a drive through penalty.
To add insult to injury,
Flores ultimately fell back into P20 after her last pit stop and was unable to pass the
Lotus of
Iker Vidal despite six laps of trying and despite the spanish driver rolling on the oldest of old hard tires.
Reliability is Key
All 20 runners finished the race despite some woes here and there.
"I lost some pace and could not use fourth gear for a while. Trying to push away from the guys on the hard tire was impossible then, and repairing all the parts cost me P2,"
Nina Holtz conceded.
She led by as much as 23 seconds with a pit stop to go, but then lost ground on track and later in the pits due to technical problems and could only recover in third.
"Bad weekend. We locked out the front row and could not get anything out of it," the
Steinmann team principal twittered after the race.
An Invaluable Point for Vélan Racing
"This is like a win for us,"
Esteban Ribeiro literally told everyone that would listen after the race. He finished tenth in Qatar, scoring a world championship point that could prove crucial at the end of the season. "Gives us some breathing room," he said.
Race Result:
Standings:
