Marussia-Ferrari aka Manor Marussia F1 Team stood last at 2015 Austrian Grand Prix. Roberto Merhi took 14th spot after completing 68 laps and Will Stevens got retired from the start due to oil leakage.
Roberto Merhi’s momentum continued in the Formula 1 Grosser Preis Von Österreich 2015 today, as he drove a strong race to Position 14, the team’s best finish of the 2015 season. But there was disappointment on the other side of the garage after an oil leak on the opening lap put paid to Will’s hopes that this could be Stevens’ Spielberg.
The pair had lined up in Position 16 and Position 17 on the grid, ahead of Ricciardo, Alonso and Button. They both made good starts but just a short time later Will was forced to pull over after the team detected a sudden drop in oil level, pointing to an oil leak. Following the release of the cars from Parc Ferme, it was evident that a piece of debris had been ingested into the side pod and had punctured a hole in the radiator.
Roberto became the team’s ‘lone ranger’ and showed good pace to stay in touch with the midfield pack for much of the early part of the race.
Roberto Merhi said, “I’m very happy with 14th place today, the best result for me and the team so far this season. We have had a strong weekend overall and it was really good to see our improved pace continuing into the race today. It meant that I was able to stay with the cars ahead for quite some time in the first stint, so it was a nice race for me and it feels like I have some real momentum now and also with the car performance. It’s a real shame we didn’t get both cars to the finish but it’s nice to go into the team’s home race off the back of a good result. I’m looking forward to Silverstone.”
Will Stevens said, “A really disappointing end to what has been a positive weekend, but as the problem was a result of debris damaging the car, it’s just one of those things unfortunately. I just have to take all the positives from here and roll them into the next one, which is of course our home race at Silverstone. We’ve shown some good pace this weekend, so I hope we can repeat that in two weeks’ time.”
