Brendon Hartley tried to complete the Australian Grand Prix without a pit stop after his lap one tyre change due to damage he incurred at the first corner.
“The front lock into tun one meant I pitted directly after lap one,” said Hartley. “The tyre went down to the canvas.”
Hartley believes he could have completed the rest of the race without a further pit stop had he not picked up a puncture due to car damage.
“We planned to go to the end of the race on the soft tyre which I think we could have managed considering how well we managed to keep the ultra at the end,” he said.
“So that would’ve all been OK, the Virtual Safety Car would have come out at the perfect time, we’d’ve been in the mix again.
“But unfortunately towards the end of that first stint we had an issue with the rear of the car which then punctured the tyre and we lost a lot of downforce at the same time. That meant I had to slow down, take a second pit stop immediately after the Virtual Safety Car came out.”
“That was definitely the end of the race,” said Hartley. “It was a bit of a struggle after that. We lost downforce [and] we’d taken an extra pit stop.”
“With the initial problem there was still some potential to make something of the race by trying to get to the end on the soft tyre which would’ve been intesreting. But the punture was really game over.”
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Vettel fan 17 (@)
30th March 2018, 10:51
Sounds like they had a bit of a disaster. Hopefully they can bounce back.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
30th March 2018, 14:42
You can take Hartley out of endurance, but you can’t take endurance out of Hartley.
Julian (Mr. Sakura) (@xiasitlo)
30th March 2018, 22:11
@peartree
If only Webber didn’t just drink that part away, he would be WDC (that end of ’10…. poor guy.)
I do wonder what caused that damage to their floor. Haven’t heard it yet. You’d almost go guessing the floor/rear is their weak spot. Would explain some unconnected dots in delta.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
31st March 2018, 15:58
@xiasitlo Didn’t STR suffer “spontaneous” rear punctures last season? At the time sky punted that it was their rear brake ducts. Kind of McLaren-ish mistakes by STR.
Julian (Mr. Sakura) (@xiasitlo)
1st April 2018, 11:47
Indeed. Looks like they’re hiding something as they knew that rear needed to be changed and they opted for more drag. Hopefully not something bad. @peartree
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
31st March 2018, 17:45
Well, I decided I like this guy. I like how he thinks. But saddly he seems off pace in quali and race was ruined.