08.12.22 NL Blog
Abu Dhabi GP: The story behind my weekend
“Saturday was a very special day – reaching Q3 for the first time in my career and getting the team’s best qualifying result of the season so far.
“To get through to Q2 was a great achievement and a nice confidence boost, and then Q3 was more than we could’ve hoped for.
“Straight out of the pits things felt good and I was getting into a rhythm. The team did a great job in Q1 and Q2 of putting me in the right place on the track when I needed to. Overall a great team effort
“I began the race feeling realistic as we were out of position with faster cars being behind us, and from Lap 1 we were always fighting an uphill battle.
“At the beginning, I was surprised at how much I could stay with the cars ahead but in reality, there was a little DRS train that was keeping me there because the cars behind were much quicker.
“It felt really nice to be properly racing in the pack. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the basic pace in the end alongside managing the car towards the end of the race.
“The car’s lacking downforce compared to the others with us missing pace in the high-speed corners, which wasn’t helped by some floor damage today.
“We put up a good fight, but it wasn’t meant to be today. Frustrating in the end but overall a positive weekend.”
Quali | p10 |
---|---|
Result | p12 |
Race time | 2h18m22.822s |
Best lap | 1m33.286s |
Pit stops | 1 |
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