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“Disappointing to leave Budapest empty handed” - Szafnauer

“Disappointing to leave Budapest empty handed” - Szafnauer

06-08-2019 13:57

Bevan Youl

SportPesa Racing Point CEO and team principal Otmar Szafnauer has called their Hungarian Grand Prix “disappointing” after the team came away into the summer break without any points.

Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll endured a tough weekend as qualified 16thand 19th, not making it into Q2 after the Canadian had finished P4 previously at the German Grand Prix.
 
Stroll was bumped up 18thafter Daniel Ricciardo took penalties for new units but could not get through the field to compete for points, finishing 17thbehind the Williams of George Russell.
 
Perez, however, was close to earning a point for the team but a firm overtake by Toro Rosso’s Alexander Albon left the Mexican with a bit of damage that affected his race later on finishing 11th.
 
Szafnauer said in the teams review: “It was always going to be hard work considering our starting positions, but we gave it everything and came close to scoring a point with Sergio.
 
“The move from Albon was very firm and there was significant contact involved, which affected Sergio’s car late in the race.
 
“For Lance, we had to react to the cars around us early on, which forced a pit stop earlier than anticipated.
 
“We had to react to Giovinazzi pitting, but Russell pitted on the same lap as Lance and we remained stuck behind him.
 
“We moved to a two-stop race to see if we could make the fresh tyres work for us in the final part of the race, but ultimately we ran out of laps.
 
“It’s disappointing to leave Budapest empty-handed, but we will come back refreshed after the break, determined to have a much stronger second half of the season.”