Esteban Gutierrez enjoyed his best result since his return to Formula 1 as the Haas F1 Team driver took eleventh place during the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya on Sunday.
The Mexican, who rejoined the F1 field with the American team in 2016 following a year on the sidelines as a Scuderia Ferrari reserve driver, was on course to secure his first points of the year until he suffered high degradation with his Pirelli tyres, ultimately dropping behind Felipe Massa, Jenson Button and, on the penultimate lap, Daniil Kvyat.
“It was a very tricky weekend for us, which started with a few problems in FP2 on Friday,” said Gutierrez. “However, the team did a great job in recovering.
“In the race, I was doing my best from the beginning to the end. I think we could have done a bit better with the tires – maybe taken a bit of a longer stint with the softs as toward the end of the race I just ran out of tires.
“However, it was really enjoyable out there and I had some great battles throughout. Today wasn’t straightforward for us to finish in the points, but we’re finding more consistency in the car, which will give us more opportunity to go forward.”
