Force India drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez think an incident-filled Bahrain Grand Prix masked their team’s “true pace” in Sakhir.
Having qualified a strong eighth, the German slipped all the way down to 15th after a sluggish getaway and premature pit stop triggered a negative domino effect that prevented him from securing a second consecutive points finish this year.
“[That was] a difficult and disappointing race where not much went to plan,” Hulkenberg said. “I made a poor start away from the line and was on the back foot going into turn one. Then suddenly three or four cars backed up on the apex and I nudged the back of somebody, which damaged my front wing and forced me to pit on lap one.
“From there onwards we tried to recover and pull off a two-stop strategy to get back in the race, but it proved very difficult. I was always in traffic and involved in lots of fights so my tyre degradation was very high. I don’t think we’ve seen our true pace because the first lap destroyed my race and we were out of synch with everybody and always playing catch up.”
Team-mate Sergio Perez had an equally miserable evening under the floodlights of the Bahrain International Circuit. A shock 18th in qualifying, the Mexican was left frustrated when an early brush with Carlos Sainz’ Toro Rosso dashed any hopes he might have had about making a strong recovery through the field.
“Not the best of weekends for me,” said Perez, who eventually crossed the line in 16th and second to last place in Sakhir. “I knew I had to get a good start after qualifying and I managed to pull off a great one, making up a lot of ground. Unfortunately, on lap two I made contact with Sainz, which ended up destroying my race. I was in his tow and when I went onto the marbles on the inside I just couldn’t stop the car enough.
“It was a real shame as the pace was there to score a good amount of points. During the rest of the race we had a lot of tyre degradation, but it’s too early to draw conclusions about what happened: we need to go back to HQ and look at the data to make sure we come back strongly in China.
“We haven’t been very lucky in the first two races, even though our pace has been good, so I’m sure things will turn in our favour soon.”
RACE REPORT: Rosberg beats Raikkonen to win in Bahrain
AS IT HAPPENED: Bahrain Grand Prix
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