PREMA Racing has continued its streak of misfortune that began in Round 7 at Silverstone into the Sprint Race this week in Austria. After Dennis Hauger failed to score any points last week, and Jehan Daruvala only managed to score 7, they both missed the points positions in the Sprint Race at Red Bull Ring as well.
PREMA was hoping to return to form from Azerbaijan, where the two drivers combined would rack up 45 points total for the team, 25 coming from a Hauger win.
Dennis Hauger would start in 15th position for the Sprint Race, and made up five spots leaving him in the top 10 for tomorrow’s Feature Race, which is a good takeaway. Teammate Jehan Daruvala started the Sprint Race 11th, stuck there throughout all 28 laps, and will start right behind Hauger tomorrow.
Hauger would go on to speak about the Sprint Race, stating: “I got a decent start, probably I could have committed a bit more in T3, but other than that, it felt like a decent race even if it’s not what we wanted, a decent recovery anyway.”
He would also talk about the loss of time he had on Lap 1 at Turn 3, saying: “I’m not sure of what happened at the exit of turn 3 to be fair, I had a car in front, driving half slow, and I wasn’t sure if I could overtake it or not going into turn 4, so I lost a bit of time.”
On the other hand, Daruvala would talk about why he was not able to get out of 11th place, going on to say: “I started in P11 and finished P11. I had a good start but not a great first lap after. I locked up and went off in turn 3 and got a bit wide in turn 4. Then the race was tricky and didn’t find a good balance.”
“I was struggling quite a lot. It’s hard to overtake and to follow I think it’s difficult for everyone.”
However, despite the struggle he had in overtaking, he would express his hope that the team can work through that for the Feature Race: “Hopefully, we can be fast and move forward tomorrow.”
PREMA will look to gather some points tomorrow without a doubt, as they both start right on the cusp of points.
Image: Prema Racing
