MoneyGram Haas F1 Team secured a double points finish, with Esteban eighth, and Oliver Bearman 10th, at the Bahrain Grand Prix, held Sunday at the Bahrain International Circuit.
Esteban took the start from 14th on the grid on Pirelli P Zero Red soft tires and gained two spots through the opening phase of the race, before pitting on lap 8 for Yellow mediums. Esteban profited from the aggressive undercut to cycle back through into sixth position, though eventually ceded a place to the off-kilter Lewis Hamilton. The Frenchman pitted again on lap 27 for White hard tires and held seventh place through a safety car period, triggered due to on-track debris. Esteban took the restart in seventh before relinquishing one place to world champion Max Verstappen, though resisted a train of cars through the remainder of the race to finish eighth at the checkered flag.
MoneyGram Haas F1 Team moves up to fifth position in the Constructors’ Championship on 20 points.
Up front Oscar Piastri recorded the fourth victory of his career for McLaren – and second of the season, ahead of George Russell in the Mercedes, and the other McLaren of Lando Norris.
Esteban Ocon: “I’m super happy for the team because I let them down yesterday making that mistake when there was more potential in the car. Today, everything worked out as planned; we got a mega start and managed to get an aggressive strategy to straight away be fighting in the points. From there, it was the maximum we could’ve done as the safety car put us in a bad position, as we were about to get overtaken by Tsunoda, and Ollie benefited as well. It was a great drive from him coming from P20 – a double-points finish for the team. We’re delighted as it’s the maximum we could’ve done and I’m proud of what we’ve achieved.”
