Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsHaas F1 Team

Gutierrez chasing first points for Haas

Esteban Gutierrez says he is targeting points for Haas after qualifying in 13th place for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Haas struggled during the first qualifying session in Australia, with both cars being knocked out in Q1 and making up the penultimate row of the grid. While Romain Grosjean recovered to finish an incredible 6th in the team's debut race, Gutierrez retired after being involved in a heavy collision with Fernando Alonso.

While he starts four places behind his team-mate for today's race, Gutierrez is confident Haas has the pace to move up to the top ten again.

"Much smoother [than Australia]," Gutierrez said. "More straightforward of course. It could have been better to be honest but I think we have a good starting point for the race to achieve the main target which is the points. That's the most important part of the weekend.

"The only thing I care about right now is points. Points is including finishing the race, it's as simple as that."

With Haas having the pace to challenge for Q3, Gutierrez is enjoying having such a competitive car after two difficult seasons racing for Sauber in 2013 and 2014.

"My feeling was always good from the beginning. It was really close, within 0.1s were four cars or something like that. We are there in the game. It is nice to be competing, it's nice to be looking at the last 0.1s and making a difference. It is good to be in that position, the proper midfield, it is the first time in my life I can be there!"

REPORT: Hamilton pips Rosberg to Bahrain pole by 0.077s

AS IT HAPPENED: Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.