Romain Grosjean felt the timing of the safety car denied him an even better result than the eighth place he achieved during the Bahrain Grand Prix, with Sergio Perez able to jump the Frenchman as a result.
The Haas F1 Team racer secured his first points of 2017 at the Bahrain International Circuit on Sunday, but Perez was able to get ahead of the Frenchman after the Sahara Force India F1 Team racer made up significant time thanks to the timing of the safety car, before Grosjean settled back in to his rhythm and take points at the circuit for a third consecutive season.
“It was a pretty good race,” admitted Grosjean. “I made a decent start and my first stint was pretty good, but it was tough to stay behind the Renault [of Nico Hülkenberg].
“Then we had the bad luck with the safety car, as we’d pitted just before. I saw Perez come out and I thought, ‘How did he come out in front of me when he’d been 10 seconds behind?’ He gained 12 seconds with the safety car and that cost a position.
“At the restart I struggled a little bit with the top speed. But, eventually, we made the right strategy call and pushed on the good laps with some great overtaking manoeuvres. So, here we are, P8. It’s good to be here scoring points.”
