Above: The view from Ryota Yoshida's Ocelot as Davenport and Schnyder suffer terminal damage. Below: Puccio Giodano's onboard shows just how close Alvarez was to a huge result for the little team from Manchester. Shortly after the conclusion of the Malaysian V-Prix, Phoenix team principal Alex Easton was hounded by a gaggle of reporters wanting to get his reaction to the race and, in particular, the retirement of Sergio Alvarez just minutes beforehand. The young Argentine, in just his fourth race, was running fourth until the last corner on the last lap, when his Judd engine cried enough. Easton was clearly upset with the retirement coming so late on, from such a good position, but remained positive.
"Look, it's a really tough one to swallow, obviously, but if you would've offered me two.. even one point before this season, I would've absolutely ripped your hand off! Of course, it doesn't quite feel as huge because of the position we were running in, but that's racing. I have to say I think it was a bit of a blessing that I was up in the commentary box at the time as both Harry and Bradley have been in that situation before, they know the pain, and as soon as the mics went off they were right there to show their dismay at Sergio's misfortune. Sergio was, of course, devastated. But Carson was the first over to him to drill it home how huge the result still is for us. After the disappointment had subsided, everyone began to realise how enormous those points might be for us this season and, although FIRST scored well too, we think tenth could well be a realistic aim after all." Sergio's teammate, Carson Davenport, had retired early on in a coming together with Westwood Renault Sport's Finn Schnyder. He spoke to the media during the V-Prix, after returning to the paddock, and tried to shed some light on what happened. "It feels awful being out of the race so early on. I'd like to say though, I absolutely do not blame Finn for the crash. Someone up ahead seemed to cause a few guys to slow down, so I had to follow suit, but Finn was on my right and probably couldn't see that happening unfortunately. But anyway, Sergio looks like he's got himself in a good position at the moment, so let's see how his race pans out, then it's onto the team's home race, everyone at Phoenix can't wait!" Comments are closed.
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