Pascal Wehrlein took positives from the 2017 Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang, despite finishing down in seventeenth place.
The Sauber F1 Team driver started the race from eighteenth position and only made up a position thanks to the demise of the non-starting Kimi Raikkonen and retiree Carlos Sainz.
“I am quite pleased with today’s race.” said Wehrlein. “Even though I am not satisfied with the end result, I was able to maintain a good pace throughout, and fought my way into the midfield for some of the race.
“That is a good step. Now I want to look into our data and analyse how this progress was made. The goal is to keep up the good work for the next few races to have more satisfying results.”
Sauber’s Team Principal Frédéric Vasseur was also in an optimistic mood following the Grand Prix.
“In terms of our pace, we had a good race today compared to our previous races – even though our finishing positions do not reflect that.” said Vasseur.
“Our strategy was also good, and we were able to catch up with the competitors in the midfield at some stage.
“Pascal gave a consistently strong performance today and Marcus also put in a good performance. Overall, it is a positive sign for us and we need to keep up the good work and keep pushing.”