Four races, no points
Complex weekend in Miami for Cadillac, which in its first home GP wanted to deliver a higher level performance to its spectators than those seen so far. After a rather negative qualifying, with both drivers starting from the second to last row of the grid, both Bottas and Perez managed to make a brief climb, insufficient even to get close to the points zone, never conquered at the start of this season.
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Not all negative
The first to cross the finish line between the two American team drivers was Sergio Perez, 16th and behind Fernando Alonso, with the former Red Bull driver still highlighting the positive aspects found over the weekend: “Today we raced – he commented after the race – it was very fun to fight with Fernando at the end. Unfortunately, he overtook me, but overall it was a nice fight and I really enjoyed it. We made the most of the day and learned a lot this weekend. We need to bring this package back to the factory to analyze everything and understand which direction to take, but I feel that we are not too far from being able to make a couple of tweaks here and there and take a further step forward. Qualifying was very promising, as was the Sprint, and the team also did a great job during my pit stop, so you can see real flashes of talent. Overall things are moving in the right direction.” Additionally, returning to the duel with Alonso in the final stages of the race, the Mexican expressed kind words towards the two-time world champion: “I hope Aston Martin doesn’t improve, because fighting with Alonso is always wonderful. He is clean and smart.”
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Problem in pit lane
18th, last and two laps behind Antonelli. A disastrous race for Valtteri Bottas, also penalized with a drive-through for exceeding the speed limit in the pit lane: “A difficult day. It seemed we had made progress with the new tires, but the degradation was still huge. The drive-through penalty didn’t help. Basically, my pit lane speed limiter didn’t activate after I pressed it, but lately we’ve been missing some feedback on the buttons, so I didn’t press it hard enough – explained the Finn – this weekend was important for us as a US team racing at home and we showed that we are definitely making progress in some areas. The most important lesson is that we still have work to do to find better performance, so we will analyze it as a team and keep working.”
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