After his impressive Formula 1 début in Melbourne two weeks ago, it was down to earth with a bump for Antonio Giovinazzi in Shanghai this weekend.
The Sauber stand-in had crashed heavily in qualifying on Saturday, requiring the car to be rebuilt overnight. A new gearbox was needed, for which he received a five place grid penalty for Sunday’s race.
Then four laps into the Chinese Grand Prix Giovinazzi ran wide out of the final corner and touched the wet grass. He was able to keep control, but a damp patch on the main straight then sent him crashing into the pit wall. That triggered a safety car while the debris from the accident was cleared up.
“First of all, I want to apologise again to the team,” the Ferrari reserve driver said afterwards. “They did a great job to get the car ready for the race.
“It was a shame that I crashed again today,” he added. “A learning lesson. I just want to forget this weekend quickly.”
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“Today it was not our day, especially not for Antonio,” said Sauber team principal Monisha Kaltenborn. “We are glad that he is fine after the accident.
“The conditions were difficult, even more so without having much experience.”
Giovinazzi’s team mate Marcus Ericsson started from 14th but was unable to keep up with the rest of the field and finished in last place a lap down from the leaders.
“The conditions were tricky as well as the asphalt temperatures being relatively low,” he explained. “It made it difficult to get the tyres to work.
Overall, I struggled with the tyres during the whole race – I never really got them into the right working window.”
“We were just not able to keep up with the pace of the competitors,” Kaltenborn admitted. “This race showed the weaknesses of our car.
“Now we focus on the next race weekend in Bahrain in one week.”
GALLERY: All the pictures from Sunday in Shanghai
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