| It had been a difficult Qualifying yesterday at Baku for the Racing Engineering team with neither of their drivers, Gustav Malja or Louis Delétraz, reaching their expected potential. For Gustav, a small mistake meant contact with a barrier and, despite some great work from the team the young Swede had to set a time without his car being fully repaired while for Louis it was a case of bad luck with his fastest laps being ruined either by traffic or yellow flags. These problems meant the Gustav was starting from 14th and Louis 18th for the 29-lap race with a lot of work needed to get into the points. The weather continued to be good with air and track temperatures of 26° and 50° degrees respectively, higher than it had been in Practice and Qualifying. Both of the Racing Engineering drivers were starting on the same tyres with both Gustav and Louis using the Pirelli P Zero Red supersoft compound tyres.
Gustav lost a place to King at the start but held onto 15th place, finishing the opening lap one second behind Visoiu and 1.2 seconds ahead of his teammate Louis. The Safety Car took to the track on lap two as Cecotto hit a barrier and stalled and, as racing resumed after two laps, Gustav was looking to pass Visoiu but the cars were very close to each other following the Safety Car so it was important not to make any mistakes. On lap seven Gustav took his mandatory stop changing to a new set of medium compound tyres and he was in 18th place when he returned to the track. By lap fifteen, just past the halfway point, following another Safety Car period the Racing Engineering car was lying 16th right behind Gelael.
Incidents to other cars promoted Gustav up to 14th, one second behind Sirotkin and three of the cars ahead of him had received ten second time penalties putting him in a virtual 11th position but Matsushita, who had been delayed by a spin was closing in. With five laps to go Gustav had closed onto the gearbox of Sirotkin and as Canamasas missed his braking he was up to 13th but then Gelael hit the barrier spinning across the track and blocking it causing Gustav to make contact and retire. A red flag was displayed as the rest of the cars were unable to pass the accident and the race was ended five laps early.
Louis made a clean start gaining a place off the grid and then passing Boschung on the opening lap to end the lap in 16th, 1.2 seconds behind Gustav. The young Swiss held his place following the Safety Car and on lap six the Racing Engineering driver took his mandatory pitstop switching to the Pirelli P Zero White medium compound tyres and resuming in 19th. By lap ten, as most the other cars took their pitstops Louis was up to 15th and closing on Visoiu but on lap eleven cold brakes meant he lost control of his car, hitting the barrier and having to retire. For tomorrow’s Sprint Race Gustav will be starting 11th and Louis 17th but both men will forget the disappointments of today and give everything to try and get their cars up into the points. |
