Rio Haryanto’s maiden Formula One Grand Prix was brutally ended with a driveline problem but he remains positive.
“Problems aside, my debut weekend was really special and the support I’ve had from the crowd here and everyone back in Indonesia has been incredible,” he said.
The 23-year-old did a superb job in qualifying to out-qualify his teammate Pascal Wehrlein however, a penalty for a pit-lane crash in FP3 forced him to start from the very back of the grid.
Haryanto also made a great start to his first race in Formula One.
“I made a good start, the pace was strong and I was happy with the way I was managing the gap to the cars around me.”
Haryanto heads to more familiar territory next month, as the Indonesian driver took his maiden GP2 victory in the sprint race in Bahrain last year.
“Everyone is really starting to work well together so I’m sure we’ll be on top of things for Bahrain. I hope for a better reward for us in Bahrain.”
Manor’s racing director Dave Ryan described his aims for Bahrain: “We let him down today so reliability will be our highest priority ahead of Bahrain and at the same time, we have to look at where we’ve lost out in performance terms.”
