Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsManor

Haryanto expects to build on race experience in China

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Rio Haryanto expects to make more progress at the Chinese Grand Prix having finished his first grand prix for Manor in Bahrain.

Having had a difficult opening weekend in Australia, Haryanto enjoyed a much smoother time of it in Bahrain last weekend. The Indonesian driver struggled in qualifying after the steering rack was changed on his car, leaving him only able to beat Felipe Nasr's Sauber before being eliminated.

However, the race was more positive as Haryanto avoided the early chaos in the midfield and saw the chequered flag. Having finished last of the runners on track in 17th place, Haryanto expects to make further progress at the next round.

"It was great to see the chequered flag," Haryanto said. "It feels good to have a race distance under my belt, which is vital experience for me and the team as it gives us more data to analyse and develop the car further.

"The start was good and we were in the mix with the Saubers and Renaults but I think we did a different strategy to those around us. We also suffered with tyre degradation, which really hampered our progress.

"Shanghai is a track I know well so I’m looking forward to making another step forward there.”

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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.