PERTAMINA PREMA Theodore Racing had a busy day in Bahrain, lining up for race 1 of the FIA Formula 2 weekend at the Al Sakhir venue. After qualifying in fourth, Nyck De Vries delivered an excellent start up to P2 and remained in the same position during the first part of the opening stint, but then a conservative strategy didn’t play out well for him. After dropping back during the pit-stop situations, the Dutchman rebounded to cross the line in sixth place.
On the other hand, Indonesian racer Sean Gelael put up an amazing recovery drive. Starting from P19 after suffering from electronic woes in qualifying, the Indonesian was fast and consistent, keeping his nose clean and recovering positions. In the end, he managed to make his way not only to the top-10, dicing briefly with his team-mate, but also to P7 which will mean a front row start in tomorrow’s race 2 which will take-off at 14:15 local time.
Sean Gelael, #3
Race 1: P7
Fastest lap: 1’48″016
“It was a good comeback race, sadly we had a water temperature issue at the start and we maybe could have gained even more positions. Overall I’m really happy with the race though, the team gave me a great car, and we made good overtaking moves. I hope that the guys back at home are happy and I want to thank everyone who supported me until now. Hopefully, we can bring something home tomorrow.”
Nyck De Vries, #4
Race 1: P6
Fastest lap: 1’48″573
“Obviously it was a very disappointing result. After moving up to P2 in the opening laps everything looked quite OK. I think the pace management wasn’t done correctly on primes because the beginning and the end were OK but we probably did it too much in the middle, I could have pushed much more. On options it was the same, I gave away a lot at the beginning just being too conservative, losing positions but also meters. In the end, I had tires left but the race was finished.”
ACF
