Nyck de Vries' second race in F1 wasn't the show-stopping performance he produced on his Grand Prix debut last year in Monza, but the Dutchman was nevertheless encouraged by AlphaTauri's pace in F1's midfield in Bahrain.
A scrappy qualifying on Saturday left de Vries stuck in Q1 down in 19th position while his teammate Yuki Tsunoda produced a strong lap that gave him a pass into Q2 where he set the 14th fastest lap.
The Japanese driver, who appeared more at ease behind the wheel of AlphaTauri's AT04, ran as high as P11 in the race while de Vries' efforts landed him in 14th position at the checkered flag.
©AlphaTauri
However, when AlphaTauri opted to split its strategies under the Virtual safety Car, de Vries was the odd man out, which left him struggling on old rubber during his final stint.
But the 28-year-old preferred to take away from the weekend his team's overall race pace rather than his own individual performance.
- Read also: F1i's Driver Ratings for the 2023 Bahrain GP
"What was important to me is that we were able to fight in the midfield and we were certainly up there in terms of pace," said De Vries. "And that was encouraging.
"It’s a shame we missed out on the VSC pitstop at the end, but that’s the decision we make and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.
"I don’t think points were realistic. But we could have definitely fought for P12. However, we learned from that and it was overall a positive day."
De Vries believes that Jeddah's fast-flowing track might be better suited to AlphaTauri's challenger next week in Saudi Arabia.
"According to our current understanding, it seems like it will maybe suit our package a little bit more," he said.
"But again, I think this is a little early to take conclusions on. So we’ll take a step at a time. But we won’t sit still in the meantime."
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
