The American Juan Manuel Correa finished his first FIA Formula 2 race at Bahrain, crossing the finish line in sixteenth position at the chequered flag.
The first of the two Bahrain races, with its 32 laps, was difficult for the drivers, who had an arduous task ahead to manage their tires. All came out with the middle compound of Pirelli, and in the only pit stop, they placed the soft one. That's how Juan Manuel Correa did it, started from twelfth position on the grid, pitted on lap 14, and finally qualified sixteenth.
At the start, Ghiotto, who started from pole position, was overtaken by five riders and dropped to the sixth position. Something similar happened to Juan Manuel Correa, who from 12th place, and after a bad start, went down to 16th place. Shortly after, Correa regained a position thanks to the accident suffered by Gelael, who lost control of his car by not lowering the DRS of his Prema Racing.
The first driver to enter the pits to make the obligatory change of tires was the Japanese Matushita (Carlin), on lap 12 of the race, while Juan Manuel Correa entered two laps later. Once on the track, the Sauber Junior Team driver was placed in the eighteenth position, although he was recovering until crossing the finish line, on lap 32, in the sixteenth position.
Tomorrow, race 2 will be held, the shortest, with 23 laps, and with the grid inverted, so that the top 8 classified in today's race will be placed in reverse position. Mick Schumacher (Prema Racing) will start from the pole position, and will share the first line of the grid with the British Jack Aitken (Campos Racing).
Juan Manuel Correa, on qualifying in the most backward positions of the eighth, will occupy on the grid the same place in which he qualified in the first race, sixteenth.
Race 2 will start on Sunday, March 31 at 3.10pm (Bahrain time).
Juan Manuel Correa:
"This first race is not what we wanted nor what I expected. It was a tough race. The truth is I have not sat down to see data with the engineers and analyze exactly what happened."
"I feel that we used a lot of rubber at the beginning, and the balance of the car did not allow me to take care of the tires, which hurt my performance throughout the rest of the race. The positive side is that I finished the race, we have the mileage, which is very important, and we are going to use it as a practice to learn and try to improve for tomorrow's race."
Media Contact:
Raffaella Fant – Marketing Director – rfant@jmcorrea.com
Mike Maurini – Media Manager – info@RaceTechDevelopment.com
Juan Manuel Correa :
JM Correa (19) is an American-Ecuadorian F2 driver who grew up in Miami, FL and currently lives in Barcelona, Spain. Juan Manuel’s racing season will be completed with the Sauber Junior Team and he has been selected to participate in the Alfa Romeo Racing Formula 1 Team as Development Driver.
