Ollie Bearman was delighted to reach the final stages of Sprint Qualifying at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix during another substitute appearance for Haas, with the youngster one of several drivers outside of the leading four teams to qualify in the top 10.
Following the announcement earlier on Friday that Kevin Magnussen would miss Friday’s running at the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace due to feeling unwell, it was confirmed that Bearman would stand in for the Dane on Friday – and it has since been announced that he will remain in the car for the full weekend.
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And despite this being another last-minute call-up for the teenager, he quickly impressed by progressing through to SQ3 in Sprint Qualifying, outperforming team mate Nico Hulkenberg in the process after the German exited in SQ2.
While Bearman made a mistake on his flying lap which cost him time – and also resulted in his effort being deleted due to track limits, leaving him without a timed lap on the board – the Briton still qualified in P10 and was thrilled with the result.
“The car was feeling really good all day, honestly,” a smiling Bearman said afterwards. “From the first lap I did in Q1 I had a great feeling. I’m happy to be in SQ3 and finally make it to the third stage of a qualifying session.
“I just did a little mistake in Sector 1, which cost me a lot of time. The rest of the lap was really, really good, so I’m a bit disappointed.”
