03/05/2025
NEWS STORY
MoneyGram Haas F1 Team drivers Ollie Bearman and Esteban Ocon started Saturday morning in Miami with the shortened 18-lap Sprint race - the second of six planned Sprint weekends on the 2025 FIA Formula 1 World Championship schedule. Ocon finished 12th with Bearman classified 14th after a post-race penalty denied him a points-paying finish.
Rain showers meant race control took the decision to start the Sprint race formation lap proceedings under the safety car to help clear any standing water from the track - Ocon and Bearman with Pirelli Cinturato Green intermediate tires on their respective VF-25s. Conditions around the circuit failed to improve and an aborted start was called - a time delay of close to 30 mins followed before cars took to the track once again.
Reduced from the originally planned 19-laps down to 18 - after a tour following the safety car, the race finally got underway with a standing start from the grid. A mainly processional affair came to life when the track dried requiring pit-stops to change out intermediate tires onto dry compounds.
Bearman, who started P18, pitted on lap 13 from P14 - the Brit swapping onto a set of Yellow medium tires. The final three laps ended under a safety car with Bearman holding P9 - boosted to P8 and the final points position following a 10 second penalty applied to Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen ahead. The joy was short-lived as a post-race 5 second penalty for Bearman, for an unsafe release in the pits, dropped him to P14. Ocon started P11, having gained a spot with Leclerc's pre-race retirement in the Scuderia Ferrari, he then battled the Williams of Carlos Sainz for much of the Sprint - the Frenchman pitting for medium tires on lap 14. Ocon took the checkered flag in P14 - later promoted up to P12.
Saturday afternoon then saw Ocon and Bearman back in action to qualify for Sunday's Miami Grand Prix - with Ocon securing his first top 10 qualifying effort with MoneyGram Haas F1 Team taking 9th with Bearman 20th.
Bearman exited in Q1 with a lap of 1:27.999 - leaving the rookie to start last in P20 on the grid. Ocon eased into Q2 with a P15 lap (1:27.450) on his Red soft tires. An even better Q2 performance produced a 1:26.967 lap to take P10 and a slot in Q3 - where Ocon wound up P9 thanks to a best lap of 1:26.824.
Ollie Bearman: "I didn't have the feeling and I didn't put the lap together, it was too messy of a lap. I probably didn't have the best run plan only using two sets of tires, so I did my second lap on the used, which is quite different to then going onto the new on the end. We didn't change the car, I was happy with it, so it hurts a little. Our race pace is good, but sorry to the team."
Esteban Ocon: "It was a frustrating Sprint race because unfortunately we were constantly looking behind. We just didn't have the pace, struggling with understeer, braking and front tire temperatures, as we destroyed the tires after five or six laps, and from then, there wasn't really much to fight for. I think we maximized our qualifying, we really got ourselves in there. We did overcome some of the issues, I think there are still some more, but that's very good as it means there's a lot of potential in the car. I'm really proud of everyone's work, we didn't give up, and although it was a tricky session, we got the car to where it should be. We need to keep that going and hopefully bring the car back home inside the top 10."
Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: "I think Ollie had an amazing Sprint, coming back from the back to P8. It's sad that we got a penalty for an unsafe release, it was marginal, but of course it's our mistake. Ollie did an amazing job and it gave us confidence going into qualifying. Then in qualifying, Q1 is of course the trickiest part, and Esteban did a good job but Ollie couldn't get a clean lap and unfortunately he didn't maximize his performance. In Q2, Esteban did an amazing job; he made a big mistake on the lap, but the rest of the lap was amazing so he got into Q3. I feel to achieve P9 with that lap time is the best we could achieve today, so with Esteban we maximized it. Tomorrow, we're going to try our best to get into the points. With Ollie - I don't know if he just likes to start P20 and overtake as many people as possible - but we know what he can do, he's a great racer, so we'll try our best with him as well."