Ollie Bearman believes Haas “executed… a perfect race” as the Briton claimed another strong points finish in Sunday’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix, suggesting sixth “was the best possible result we could have achieved”.
The 20-year-old headed to Brazil off the back of his strongest result in Formula 1 to date, having finished fourth at the previous round in Mexico City.
Bearman’s impressive form continued over the weekend, which included qualifying P8 after finishing towards the top of the times in the earlier Q1 and Q2 sessions, although he was handed a five-second penalty for a collision with Liam Lawson’s Racing Bulls in Saturday’s Sprint.
Having stayed out of trouble and run as high as fourth at one stage in the 71-lap Grands Prix, Bearman finished best of the rest behind the leading runners but well clear of the chasing back to record his fourth points finish on the bounce.
“Very happy. I think we executed honestly a perfect race and that was the best possible result we could have achieved,” said Bearman, whose eight points have left Haas just two behind Aston Martin in the Teams’ Championship.
“Of course we had some fortune with some cars retiring but overall I think we had a great race. Good strategy, good pace, some overtakes as well which is never fun because that’s always adding another element of risk, but it was a really nice one out there.
“Mexico was a bit of a surprise but to keep that momentum with a P6 is a great feeling and now we have a great opportunity heading into the final three races.”
Team mate Esteban Ocon also put in a strong performance but a pit lane start, along with a puncture just as a Safety Car period was ending, meant the Frenchman could only finish 12th, albeit only two seconds behind Liam Lawson in P7.
“I would have been much further up if we didn’t have a puncture. Unfortunately, we got the puncture one lap after Max [Verstappen] and the race basically restarted when I came in so I lost however much time, probably like a good 10 seconds,” he said.
“We finished in contact with P7, we were there at the end with Pierre [Gasly], Liam [Lawson], with Nico [Hulkenberg]. It was looking like a good finish but unfortunately not.
“[We lacked] probably two laps really to make further progress. It’s unfortunate because we had good pace but I think the luck was just not on our side this weekend.”
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