Nicholas Latifi felt his Azerbaijan Grand Prix was a lonely one for him, and he feels there are a few things he could have done differently during the race.
The Williams Racing driver crossed the line in fifteenth but was handed a thirty-second time penalty for not going through the pit lane when instructed behind the safety car as the clear up of Max Verstappen’s crash continued.
It was a mistake from the team, who instructed the Canadian to stay on track, but it was Latifi who took the time penalty that relegated him to sixteenth and the three penalty points to his Superlicence.
Latifi says it was a shame the result was as it was as he felt he was driving well throughout the weekend at the Baku City Circuit.
“It was a fairly lonely race for me today,” said Latifi. “Before the red flag, we were committing to the one-stop strategy and I was doing what I needed to do managing the tyres.
“In the end the result wasn’t to be, which is a shame as I felt I was driving really well throughout this weekend. On the operational side, there were a few things where we needed to be sharper so it’s unfortunate.”
“I was just coming to the line and then I had no power” – George Russell
Team-mate George Russell was forced to retire from the race late on with a gearbox issue, just ahead of the final restart with two laps remaining.
Russell had been hoping to make some late race gains and perhaps put himself into contention for the top ten, but his afternoon came to a halt with the terminal issue before he could attack once more.
“Unfortunately, we had a problem with the gearbox which forced me to retire before the race restart,” said Russell. “I was just coming to the line and then I had no power, which is especially frustrating after so much anticipation building up before those final two laps.
“It wasn’t meant to be, and that’s racing sometimes. We’ll go away and analyse what happened. I was having a good race before that, the car felt fast and I had a lot of confidence in it so there are definitely positives to take away from the weekend.”