Brendon Hartley, Toro Rosso, Baku City Circuit, 2018

Hartley relieved to grab first point after resisting Ericsson

2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by and

Brendon Hartley described how he resisted a late attack from Marcus Ericsson to score the first point of his F1 career in Azerbaijan.

“I’m obviously really happy to get that point because even the last lap I had quite a lot of pressure,” said the Toro Rosso driver.

“I was told I was P10, I had Ericsson behind. Even though I had quite a big gap coming onto the back straight, he wasn’t so far, so I had to push pretty hard on the last lap to keep him behind and use all the tools available.

“It was still a big fight to get that P10 so I’m happy I kept the composure, kept it together and brought home my first point. I think when I’m in this scenario again I’ll be more relaxed because I’ll know I’ve got at least one point on the board.”

However Hartley admitted he “felt like I was on the defensive the whole race – we really didn’t have the pace.”

“There was a lot of drama all around us. I kept it clean, I didn’t make any mistakes and I brought home one point. I’m happy for that but at the same time we really didn’t have the pace to be much further ahead.

Tenth is the team’s second-best result of the year after Pierre Gasly’s shock fourth place in the Bahrain Grand Prix, where Hartley failed to score. He admitted this had been a missed opportunity and the team’s loss of pace since then is a mystery.

“I wish I knew because the obvious question is why we were so quick in Bahrain. Pierre had the result, I also had the pace in Bahrain but obviously I didn’t get the result.

“At this moment I don’t have the answers and I think the team will continue trying to understand. It was only a few weeks ago.”

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2018 F1 season

Browse all 2018 F1 season articles

5 comments on “Hartley relieved to grab first point after resisting Ericsson”

  1. Good on him! I know there a rumors that he is on the way out already, and some fans calling for it, but he had a few races last year and a few more so far this year. Give him some time and hopefully he can bring some more points home.

    1. Unfortunately hes team that vaules performance so his F1 career will be short if hes not top notch even though hes better than a few drivers on the grid.

    2. Given that Red Bull has pretty much exhausted their junior talent for the time being, I can’t really see Hartley losing his seat during the season, but I doubt he’ll have a seat for 2019. We all know Toro Rosso is pretty cutthroat when it comes to expectations for the drivers (see: Daniil Kvyat), so unless he starts scoring points consistently, I doubt he’ll stick around. I wouldn’t be shocked if he gets replaced by that Fukuzumi kid who’s been running in F2, especially if Red Bull switches to Honda for 2019.

  2. hes in a team*

  3. “At this moment I don’t have the answers and I think the team will continue trying to understand. It was only a few weeks ago.” – A month ago to be a bit more precise.

Comments are closed.