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Williams' hope fades after double DNF at Hockenheim

20:30, 22 Jul 2018

byJake Williams-Smith

Williams' hopes for the German Grand Prix were quickly shattered after suffering a double-DNF. Sergey Sirotkin had qualified a career-best 12th however an oil leak brought his race to an early end.

Speaking after the race, Sirotkin reflected on a disappointing day for the team having been so optimistic after his qualifying heroics.

“It was a good race and I had to fight quite a lot at the start.

“I had some good fights which I won and others which I unfortunately lost as I was not in position to do so. But once the race settled down it was a good race and we managed the tyre well.

“The pace was reasonable and when the rain started, I was very confident and closed the gap between cars ahead of me quite quickly.

“When the safety car was deployed I felt it was our chance but unfortunately, I had a call to stop the car immediately.”

Teammate Lance Stroll suffered the same fate, this time due to a brake failure. The Canadian told media after the race it was an opportunity missed with the weather so mixed during the grand prix.

“I had to retire as I lost brakes. Qualifying looked strong yesterday, but today the pace wasn’t great. But I was happy with my race.

“At one stage we looked like we were in a pretty promising position, but then the rain started to come in.

“Looking at the results, Hartley scored a point and we were in front of him before we stopped for the inters and then obviously we had to retire with the brake failure.

“However, at a certain stage we were looking pretty good. It is a shame we could not be there at the end to capitalise on some of the mixed conditions.”