Mixed fortunes for the Haas drivers in Shanghai: while Ollie Bearman distinguished himself again by clinching a splendid fifth place, Esteban Ocon was involved in an incident with Franco Colapinto.
Read more Kimi Antonelli nearly had a heart attack at the end of the race
The young Briton continues to deliver an almost perfect start to the season and once again proved to be the best of the rest this Sunday in China, finishing fifth.
He had already achieved this performance last week in Melbourne, where he finished seventh, and had scored a point in yesterday’s Sprint.
A great haul of points
Bearman, however, narrowly avoided disaster on the first lap when Isack Hadjar spun in front of him and he had to avoid him. While he is pleased to have managed to dodge the accident, he still lost time, fortunately compensated for by the arrival of the safety car.
“It was unfortunate, he was on soft tires, he passed me and lost control in front of me. I was like a rabbit caught in the headlights, I didn’t know what to do!” said Bearman, detailing his quick reaction to get around the Red Bull.
“I saw the car sliding, I didn’t know if he was going to release the brakes. I had a quarter of a second to think. I went left, I probably should have gone right, but you’re in survival mode to avoid crashing the car, and I didn’t crash it. I dropped back very far, I was able to overtake other cars, and the Safety Car came out at the right time. I had bad luck on the first lap but good luck with the safety car, it balanced out a bit. Then, I had a good race, I was able to overtake and the car was very fast.”
Read more F1 2026 hampers Charles Leclerc in qualifying, but he thrives in the race
Asked about the rest of his season after these two convincing results, which allow Haas to sit in fourth place in the standings, Bearman remains ambitious: “We can have more and I want to continue giving it my all.”
Ocon admits his mistakes
For his part, Esteban Ocon finished at the bottom of the standings after a collision with Franco Colapinto and a late-race pit stop. The Frenchman particularly laments the poor timing of the safety car, which compromised his chances of a good result despite a strong start.
“The incident isn’t really the problem, it’s more the Safety Car coming at the wrong time. That’s two races now where we haven’t had any luck in that regard, it falls at the wrong time and we lose time to the others, explained Ocon. We were doing well at the start of the race, we had some good battles, we could have aimed for fifth or sixth place. Then, we dropped back. We started on hard tires so we couldn’t stop earlier, we should have done two stops.”
He takes responsibility for the incident with Colapinto, explaining that he had to attempt the attack to hope for a point, while being pleased that the Argentine was still able to score: “For the incident with Franco, it’s my fault, I deserve the penalty and I apologized. There was a point at stake, I had to go for it, and I’m glad we weren’t both out of the race and that he still scored a point.”
Read more Red Bull reveals the cause of Max Verstappen’s surprise retirement in China