Photo: Red Bull Content Pool
Dennis Hauger has revealed it was an engine-related problem that put him out of the Bahrain feature race on Sunday, race two of the Formula 2 season.
The MP Motorsport driver qualified fourth and dropped to eighth on the opening lap of the race, then fell to the rear of the field as he pitted during a safety car period that spanned the first three laps.
He ran in a lapped last place until lap 16 of 32, when he retired his car. Thanks to a podium in Saturday’s sprint race, Hauger ended the weekend seventh in the championship standings.
“Race two we had a technical issue with the turbo mainly which just ruined our race,” he said afterwards. “We could easily have been on the podium with the pace we had shown.”
“Unbelievable to see the engine already fail before we have even completed a full race weekend… but at least we know we have good pace and can go into next race with good confidence to gain back our lost points.”
As Hauger was not on track later in the race, he did not get to show the performance of his car on a lower fuel load and he was 17th on the chart ranking every driver’s fastest race laps.
This weekend marked the first time F2 has used its new “55% sustainable fuel” mix from Aramco in competition. Teams got to use the fuel for the first time during the three-day pre-season test at Bahrain, and none of them reported any issues with the product.