Asia: Abu Dhabi: Sam Bird weekend summary

BIRD IMPRESSES WITH "BIG PERFORMANCE" IN ABU DHABI

ART boss Frederic Vasseur: "Sam put in a big performance with ART this weekend. He did an excellent job in qualifying to secure front row on the grid for the feature race and even took the lead off the start. However, his race, and ultimately his entire weekend, was spoilt by a terminal brake disc issue, which forced him to retire on the penultimate lap."

"Sam put in another remarkable performance in race two to try to fight his way back up the order, deservedly achieving the fastest lap of the race in the process" Vasseur added.

"It's very much a case of what might have been", said Bird. "We showed in qualifying and on Sunday in particular that we had race-winning pace. What happened on Saturday with the rogue brake pad was just one of those things and strangely similar to the issue that put an end to Lewis' race in the F1."

"On Sunday, starting that far back, I really had to go for it to make something happen" he explained. "I had a good start and managed to jump up from 18th to 10th but a few turns later I got tagged into a spin by the car just behind me. That meant I had to do it all again and I certainly gave it my best shot and pushed to the limit. It was important for the team and for myself to get fastest lap, which we did by a good margin. It makes an important point to our opponents that ART and Bird are very much in the frame."

-credit: sb