Brendon Hartley admitted that he was disappointed with his twelfth place finish in his final race in Formula One.
During an eventful opening lap, the Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda driver sustained front-wing damage and was forced into the pits for repairs.
It meant he was left down the order early on with a tough recovery drive ahead of him.
“Unfortunately, my race was kind of over on the first lap,” said Hartley. “I didn’t have anywhere to go with the crash into Turn 8 and I had to go off track to avoid the cars in front.
“I ran into some debris and damaged the front wing, so I had to stop on the first lap and then did a whole race on one set of tyres with the old spec front wing, which was always going to be an uphill battle.
“We managed the tyres well, but after the issue on lap one, P12 was pretty much the maximum we could manage.”
Hartley was able to recover several positions but couldn’t make it into the points on his final outing in F1. The Kiwi added that his time in the sport had helped him become a stronger person and driver.
“I’ve finished the year a lot stronger than I started it as the past few races have been great, however today didn’t work out as planned,” he added.
“I’m happy with my progression throughout the season and I feel like I’ve come out of this year a stronger individual and racing driver.”
