Bearman 'really happy' after bagging ‘super important’ points for Haas in Singapore

Ollie Bearman was left delighted with his work in Singapore, having scored "super important" points for Haas with his ninth place finish.

The Briton started solidly in the top 10 after making it to Q3 on Saturday evening for the first time since Silverstone. While he got away well, he found himself tangling with Isack Hadjar at the start, which allowed Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso to slip through, and that could have derailed his race.

However, the youngster managed to keep a feisty Nico Hulkenberg at bay in the early stages, not putting a foot wrong as he climbed back through the field after his pit stop to bag his team’s first points since Zandvoort.

“Really happy,” was Bearman’s take after the race. “After Lap 1, a bit of an incident, dropped down to P10. Then I was under a lot of threat from Nico [Hulkenberg] behind who was very fast.

“Generally, on that first stint I was struggling a lot with car balance. We made a good step with the second [stint] and actually we were looking on for P8 because of Alonso’s slow stop. Unfortunately, I lost a position to him, he seemed a bit quicker than us today but happy to score points.”

Bearman acknowledged that while he was “disappointed” not to put up more of a fight when Alonso started to come back through the field, the fact the Spaniard pulled a 10 second gap showed the Aston Martin had more pace than the Haas in Singapore.

He called his points “super important” in what is an increasingly tight midfield battle, with ninth-placed Haas currently nine points adrift of Kick Sauber in the fight for P8 and the increase in prize money that place would mean.

“On a tough track we executed a great weekend,” he concluded.

In contrast, Esteban Ocon was left more frustrated after coming home a lap down in 18th place. He suffered a seatbelt issue in Qualifying that was a factor in his Q1 exit, and at a track where overtaking is difficult, was always going to struggle from a lowly grid slot.

His cause wasn’t helped by being betwixt and between on strategy – running a long first stint and thus missing the undercut opportunity, but nowhere near as long as Carlos Sainz who used his fresh tyres to good effect late on to climb into the top 10.

“It was always going to be a tough challenge but we gained positions at the start and on the first few laps, so we were on for catching Lance [Stroll] at some stage,” Ocon said.

“It was getting better through the race but we stayed out really late and when we boxed, we lost out on everything and couldn’t recover because of the DRS train in front. That was it really, I think we turn the page on this one.

“There will be a week to reflect on exactly what happened throughout the whole weekend, as it is a big missed opportunity. So really unhappy with this one.”