Haas F1 Team drivers Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutierrez were positive with their performances in the Malaysia Grand Prix, despite both failing to make the finish.
Romain Grosjean looked to have firmly put his nightmare Singapore Grand Prix behind him and was running in the points at Sepang before yet another brake failure launched him off the road at the final turn on lap eight.
"There was a brake failure," Grosjean revealed. "We really don’t know what yet, but the pedal just went straight to the floor and I had to avoid the car in front of me. Our data didn’t suggest anything beforehand. It’s a shame."
"We did a really good first lap and we were looking at points running inside the top 10. Things just didn’t go very well," he said. "I was racing with Fernando (Alonso). He had power, so it was very difficult to keep him behind. I was then just trying to follow his pace. The plan was to try to keep the tires alive for quite a while. We just didn’t get to that point, though."
Gutirerez meanwhile made a good start, putting him in an ideal position to challenge for points later in the race but the first corner accordion saw him sustain damage which would hinder him all afternoon.
His race finally came to an end of lap 41 when he lost his left front wheel.
"Today we had a fantastic start," said the Mexican. "It was pretty good up to the first corner when, unfortunately, I got a puncture in my rear-right tire from Kevin (Magnussen) touching behind."
"I then had to come back to the pits. The floor was damaged and when I went back out on track I was fighting a lot, pushing to make up places, but the car wasn’t easy to drive," he admitted. "We had to retire after my second pit stop as we had a mechanical failure. Overall, a pretty disappointing weekend, but we have to keep our focus and keep the rhythm as we head to Japan."
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Bahrain International Circuit - Winter testing
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