PREMA’s Ollie Bearman says he is “quite happy” with his performance, despite scoring no points in Round 5 of the season in Monaco.
The Brit, who became the first driver in FIA Formula 2 history to top every session in Baku (Round 4), had a tough weekend in Monte Carlo, after crashing in practice.
He said: “Overall, I’m quite happy with the performance, even if the result doesn’t show it.”
The 18-year-old could only manage 16th on the grid, while his PREMA teammate Frederik Vesti took pole position and went on to win the Feature Race on Sunday.
Bearman bemoaned his poor qualifying, saying: “We know this track is all about a good qualifying, we didn’t have that.”
The Baku double-winner retired from the Sprint Race with damage to the front right corner of his car but made early progress from his lowly grid position in the Feature Race.
However, the British driver was one of those hampered by the red flag for Jack Doohan’s accident on Lap 22: “Without the red flag, we were in for a decent result,” he said.
The teenager had pitted before the red flag, and may well have ended up with track position on the likes of Roman Stanek and Kush Maini who benefitted from what was effectively a ‘free’ pit stop, as teams can make their mandatory stop under red flag conditions.
Although Round 5 yielded nothing in the way of points, Bearman said the car felt “mega”, adding he was “happy with this performance, let’s bounce back!”
Bearman remains on 41 points, dropping to eighth in the drivers’ standings, while PREMA’s fourth win of the season with Vesti allows the Italian team to lead ART by 22 points in the Teams table.
Image: PREMA Racing
