It was an exciting and eventful 400th Grand Prix for the Sauber F1 Team at the Circuit of The Americas on Sunday with Felipe Nasr finishing in ninth for the team, scoring two world championship points, although team-mate Marcus Ericsson was forced to retire.
It had not been a good start for the Brazilian however, when he clashed with team-mate Ericsson and broke his front wing against the Swede’s rear wheel at turn one, taking a gamble on dry tyres that did not pay off, but lucked in when the safety car was deployed that enabled Nasr to unlap himself.
“It’s been an eventful race,” said Nasr. “I had a difficult beginning with front wing damage and what was a too early tyre change to slicks. I had to pit again one lap later to change back to intermediate tyres.
“From that moment on my race started. At the end of the race I was able to take a few positions by managing my tyres better than my competitors and so finished in the points.”
Team-mate Ericsson was unlucky compared to his Sauber team-mate as on lap 27, due to an electrical failure, he had to stop his car on track, with the Swedish driver feeling he could have been in contention for points had he continued his race.
“I had a good start. In turn 1 there was a car in front of me spinning, but I am glad I managed to avoid driving into it,” said Ericsson. “I had to go off the track, so I lost some positions.
“After that I got into the rhythm and was able to overtake a few cars. The pace we had on the intermediates on the drying track was more competitive compared to all the sessions throughout the weekend.
“On soft tyres I was struggling a bit to get them to work, then I had to stop the car on track. It was a big disappointment as I think it was possible to have scored some points today.”
